Allow In-Person Early Voting

This is a bill to create in person early voting in Mississippi. If it is passed, voters in Mississippi will be able to go to their polling place to vote before Election Day. 

This bill:

• Defines terms about early voting:

  • "Election": the time for casting a final vote, including the fifteen-day early voting period.

  • "Polling place" or "voting precinct": places to vote during early voting and on Election Day.

  • "Ballot harvesting": someone who intentionally grabs and sends off a ballot that belongs to someone else, outside of the legal rules.

  • “Ballot drop boxes”: a place where voters can drop off their absentee or mail ballots in sealed and signed envelopes, without anyone watching over them.

• Sets in-person early voting from 15 days before the election, until 12:00 p.m. on the Saturday before Election Day.

• Allows in-person early voting for all kinds of elections: primary, general, runoff, special, and municipal.

• Set regular business hours for in-person early voting at the registrar's office.

  • Registrar’s office: a special office in your county where people go to sign up to vote and handle voting-related tasks. It's the main place that keeps track of who can vote in your area.​

• Makes hours for voting longer during the last full week before the election.

• Puts in place a heads-up about in-person early voting at three public places, like the county courthouse or city hall, eight days before it kicks off.

• Explains how to cast a ballot during in-person early voting.

• Explains how to make sure a person is able to vote during early voting.

• Bans ballot harvesting, ballot drop boxes, and mail-in or absentee ballots outside what's allowed by the Mississippi Election Code.

  • Mail in or absentee ballots: When people can't go to the regular voting places on Election Day, they can ask for a special paper called an absentee ballot to be sent to them. They fill it out at home and send it back by mail to make sure their vote counts. ​

  • Mississippi Election Code: A set of laws about elections and voting that everyone in Mississippi has to follow.

• Updates parts of the Mississippi Code of 1972, which is a set of laws everyone in the state has to follow, to keep everything in line

• Says in-person early voting can only happen at the registrar's office.

• Makes voters show photo ID to vote in person during early voting.

• Makes sure voters in the Statewide Elections Management System as "VOTED IPE" after they vote. The Statewide Elections. Management System is a tool that supports elections in Mississippi run smoothly.

• Clarifies that all votes during the early voting period are final and will be counted on Election Day.

• Lets political parties and people running for office to be at early voting to challenge whether people can vote.

• Makes the Secretary of State create rules and directions for in-person early voting and voting systems that are safe.

• Slightly changes absentee voting application processes and rules to require specific things for mail-in ballots, deadlines for turning them in, and how to apply.

If this bill passes, these changes start on January 1, 2026.