Mississippi Enacts List Maintenance and Election Audits Law
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Wednesday, April 19, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) signed House Bill 1310, a bill that outlines post-election audits and steps to remove voters from the rolls. The central tenet of the bill, according to Mississippi Today, will place certain voters on an inactive status list if they fail to vote during a two-year period. On the inactive list, voters would only be permitted to vote provisionally and must take certain steps to avoid removal from the voter rolls completely.
The bill also authorizes the secretary of state to conduct post-election audits after upcoming general elections in every county in the state and require officials to try to identify and remove noncitizens on the voting rolls.
“Data has revealed that certain Mississippi counties have more registered voters than current eligible voting age citizens, indicating that a number of voter rolls do not properly reflect the existing eligible voters in that county,” Reeves wrote in his signing statement, touting Mississippi’s “secure elections.”