On June 5, a lower state court in Mississippi refused to rule on how to interpret the state’s confusing law on statewide initiative petitions. The State Constitution says a substantial number of signatures are needed from each of the state’s “five” U.S. House districts. However, the state no longer has five districts; it only has four. The Constitution is out-of-date. State Senator Joey Fillingane, who is trying to get an initiative on the ballot, had asked a state court to determine whether he should collect signatures from the five districts that no longer exist, or from the current four districts. But the judge said there is no actual case or controversy, and declined to rule. Fillingane v Hosemann, G2009-399, Hinds County.
Fillingane will proceed as though he needs signatures from the five old districts, since the Secretary of State supports that interpretation. Fillingane has already collected 10,000 signatures, but he needs 90,000. His initiative would impose a requirement that voters at the polls show government photo-ID. The Secretary of State, Delbert Hosemann, supports the initiative.
Fillingane is one of a group of three or four Republican senators who prevented the voter ID bill from getting out of committee. This group apparently did not like the early voting provision that was included in the bill.
Mississippi Republicans have been trying to get voter ID enacted since the mid-1990s, and there’s considerable anger toward this group for blocking it. Fillingane’s initiative is an effort to redeem himself.
Secretary of State Hosemann is also a Republican.
So in other words, because 5 doesn’t equal four, there is no controversy?
While in a math class not dividing by zero that makes sense, in this case the judge is an idiot.
A simple constitutional amendment to drop the number in favor of “each” district would solve it, but the better way is to eliminate the requirement altogether–which is why that won’t happen.
Seems like Mississippi could make a belated VRA Section 5 filing, saying that they are dividing the state into 4 districts which will be used for (1) electing representatives; and (2) requiring 20% of initiative petitions from each of the four and making it possible to file 20% from a non-existent 5th.
The DOJ could say that you can continue to use the 4 districts for (1), but not for (2) and that Mississippi should continue to use the 5 1990 districts for initiatives.