No Early Voting, No Online Registration: Inside MS’s Voting Rights Battle

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And as the presidential candidates barnstorm the swing states, voter turnout will be key. And our next guest is dedicated specifically to mobilizing black women to exercise their democratic rights. Cassandra Welchlin is executive director of the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, and she now speaks with Michel Martin.

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MICHEL MARTIN, CONTRIBUTOR: Cassandra Welchlin, thank you so much for joining us.

CASSANDRA WELCHLIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MISSISSIPPI BLACK WOMEN’S ROUNDTABLE: Thank you for having me.

MARTIN: As we are a couple of days out, you know, from Election Day, although in some parts of the country, people are already voting, which is something we’ll get to. Let me just back — go back to you. How did you get the idea for the work that you’re doing? I mean, it’s just — it’s the kind of thing that — I just have to be honest, a lot of people might think isn’t necessary anymore.

WELCHLIN: One of the goals for me when I was asked to take over the Mississippi Black Women’s Round table in 2018, the number one thing that drove me and that my vision was I needed to liberate my people. And I knew what — and it felt very much like a call, and I accepted that call. And for me it looked like a couple of things. I am a policy advocate. I am a social worker. And one thing that I say is, you know, policy is the work of our democracy, but the vote is the heart of our democracy. And so, for me, I wanted to make sure that liberation really stood tall with voting. And so, we took that opportunity and began to say, how can we increase the voting population of black women, particularly infrequent black women? And with that information, we develop an intentional voter engagement training plan that was rooted in culture, rooted strategically, and with the intensity of a boot camp, because we understand that our voting rights are under attack. And so, we wanted to really design it in a way to where it felt rigorous and it felt serious, but it also had a lot of joy in it as well.

MARTIN: So, let’s back up a second, because there are a lot of people who are going to be listening to our conversation who are going to be asking themselves, why do you need that in Mississippi? It’s 2024. What are some of the things that you see that perhaps who are not in Mississippi wouldn’t know about what you see as obstacles to that participation?

WELCHLIN: When you ask that question, I’m really glad that you asked it that way, is because voting rights are still being suppressed here in the State of Mississippi. People — we have really regressive voting laws here. We do not have early voting in Mississippi.

MARTIN: Wait, wait, wait. You have no early voting at all?

WELCHLIN: We have no early voting.

MARTIN: OK.

WELCHLIN: We have absentee voting in Mississippi. And that you have to qualify for based on your age, based on disability, and you have to have a reason to do it — like, for instance, you cannot — you have to go to work on that day. And so, then you can go and have absentee voting.

MARTIN: And that is my understanding that you also have to have your application for absentee voting notarized, which means you have to go to somebody who is a notary public and get them to validate this.

WELCHLIN: Well, one more thing, Michel, is that we also don’t have online voter registration and we don’t have early voting. And so, what this does is that it gives people only 12 hours in the day to go and vote. Well, that’s problematic, particularly for black women in the State of Mississippi that are working two and three jobs just to make ends meet. And so, we’re talking about child care and we’re also talking about having inflexible work schedules. And for us, we’re saying, you know, if this is a democracy and where the vote is supposed to matter to everyone, then let’s expand voting access so that people can vote their voice. That is important. But we have these restrictions here that keep people from doing that. And let’s not even talk about the disenfranchising crimes, you know, that we have in Mississippi where people have lifetime voting restrictions where they can’t vote.

MARTIN: Is the issue there that there’s no process for restoration, like once your sentence is complete or once your period of probation is complete that there is no — there’s no mechanism by which you could ask for restoration of your vote? Is that the main issue here?

WELCHLIN: Main issue is that is difficult here in Mississippi. You can ask for restoration, but because we also have a supermajority in the State of Mississippi, the process for getting people’s voting rights restored is very, very difficult. Our process is you have to get a legislator to write a bill. And then present that and they have to vote on whether that person can get their voting rights restored. That’s very hard to do. The secretary of state had a hearing before the legislative body to say they want to put more restrictions on people not being able to vote. So, for instance, one of the things they want to do is add more crimes. Another thing that they want to do is they want to make sure that before they can get their voting rights restored, they have to serve all their sentencing, and they have to pay back all of their restitutions and fines. Well, we know that when folks are coming out of out of prison, that’s very difficult. It’s hard for them to even get a job. And we know that bails and fines are really predatory on families and communities.

MARTIN: I’ll tell you one of the things about Mississippi that is striking, is that it has one of the largest percentages of eligible black voters in the country, some — almost 40 percent of Mississippians are black or black and biracial, right? And yet, there are no black people in statewide office in Mississippi. Both houses of the legislature are dominated by Republicans and the percentage of African Americans in that body is nowhere near their percentage of the population overall. Why is that?

WELCHLIN: Yes. So, it has to go back to the — you know, what I think are, you know, voter suppression and gerrymandering. You’re right. We have not had a statewide — a person of color to be in a statewide office, not for not a lack of trying. Representation matters. But if you are drawing these lines in such a way that disenfranchises the vote, then that becomes an issue. And this is the effect of that is that we haven’t been able to have a person of color or a black person to have — to sit in that statewide office.

MARTIN: So, when you say that this is voter suppression, like how do people in the state respond to that? Do they believe you? Do they think it’s ridiculous? Like, what do they say?

WELCHLIN: So, Mississippi had 30,000 registered voters purged from the voter rolls. 30,000.

MARTIN: And when was — yes. When was — I was going to ask you, when did this happen?

WELCHLIN: Yes. Last year, 30,000. One of the things that we did this year, just a couple of weeks ago, we met the voters where they were, in the restaurants, in the clubs, and we had a check your voter status day. And we presented them with an iPad, and we said, we need you to check your status. Sure enough, some of those folks checked their status, like, no, it can’t be me because I voted. They were not on those voting rolls. We have made phone calls to people. You are not on the voting rolls. We want to help get you registered. Folks are knocking on doors and doing the same. It is real.

MARTIN: What is their argument about why they were purged? Would they say that they were not voting and so, therefore, they thought that they were either didn’t live in the state or were no longer eligible? Like what’s the stated reason why these voters were purged from the rolls?

WELCHLIN: Well, the stated reason is that they haven’t voted in the last two elections. But what we know is that some people did vote and have always consistently voted, super voters, but yet, they have been purged from the rolls.

MARTIN: I understand that yours is a nonpartisan organization, right? But can you give us a sense of what difference it would make if the — let’s just focus on black voters. black voters who are registered, but for whatever reason, don’t get to the polls, what difference it might make if they were able to get to the polls?

WELCHLIN: In 2018 there were seven points between a Cindy Hyde-Smith and Mike Espy. So, that’s a 60,000-vote difference.

MARTIN: And that’s in the 2018 Senate race?

WELCHLIN: Yes, senate race. In 2019, there was five points between Jim Hood, this is the governor race, and Tate Reeves. So, that was a 45,000- vote difference. And in 2023, there was a three-point race between Presley and Tate Reeves in the governor race. That’s a 26,000-vote difference. So, what that means is that the voting percentages is closing, which also means that there’s opportunity for people to vote their values. And what that also means is that the rules keep changing because it is those percentages are getting closer and organizations like ours are doing our part, right, to ensure that people have access to the poll so they can vote who they want to vote for.

MARTIN: I think some people look at what they call like an undervote, right, that people who are eligible to vote but don’t vote, they look at as an undervote. They say, well, the undervote is that people aren’t interested or the undervote is because people don’t — aren’t motivated enough to vote. And you’re saying that that’s just not true. In fact, more people keep voting despite these impediments.

WELCHLIN: Absolutely. More people keep voting. And we see it in the data. I think what’s also driving this is — so, for instance, we know that, you know, the overturning of Roe versus Wade came out of Mississippi. Our attorney general brought that case to the Supreme Court, and people are talking about that and on fire about that, and our young people are really carrying that banner and saying, this is important to me. And so, our young people are showing up, you know, to the polls and having these conversations. So, it’s not that they’re not showing up, it’s about having that access and continuing to move the needle that will close that gap.

MARTIN: So, presumably you’ve testified to these matters, you’ve spoken about this publicly, you’ve been working on this for some time. When you service these issues, what do these legislators say? What do these state officials say? How do they defend these decisions?

WELCHLIN: Last year, we have — we saw during the legislative session where many of our legislators, particularly in the legislative black caucus, put forward legislation that would restore people’s voting rights, but it was rejected. Now, when we talk about these issues that we are seeing in community, many of them understand that and see that. But when we go over to, you know, less friendly legislators who really want to be more restrictive, one of the things that we hear is that we want to prevent fraud from occurring. And we know that in Mississippi, that’s very few and in between. There’s not a lot of data that support there is fraud. And so, there’s a lot of disinformation that’s occurring. And so, we just continue to educate, this is what we’re seeing in communities and we continue to stand together as a coalition to make sure that our community is brought to the policy table so that they can get access to the right to vote. Because what this really is about, Michel, at the end of the day, too, is how people who we elect in office really has an impact on what happens to people’s kitchen tables, making sure their wages are increased. Mississippi hasn’t had a wage increased, right? It’s still $7.25 cents.

MARTIN: You’re saying your minimum wage, the minimum wage in Mississippi is 7.25 an hour?

WELCHLIN: Yes.

MARTIN: Is that what you’re saying? So, let me just ask you this. I think it’s just surprising people to hear that in a state like Mississippi where people have all these — you know, that is far more rural, people are far more — you know, there are population centers that people are a lot more spread out, that there aren’t those opportunities to vote, you see this as intentional, as a way to keep certain people from voting?

WELCHLIN: Oh, absolutely. Oh, no doubt about it. You know, when you see that many people, black folks, registered to vote and has the potential to elect someone that cares about their families and cares about their kitchen tables, cares about their drug prescriptions, right, care about, you know, putting food on the table, then you’re going to do everything you can to change the rules to the game, to ensure that they don’t have access to that ballot. And so, racism runs through this, through and through, like you can’t deny that. You know, this is why I think the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is so important. That was once upon a time before it was struck down, where we had preclearance. Before any rules or policies or anything was changed, you know, a state or jurisdiction had to get preclearance from the Department of Justice or higher court in D.C. to ensure that there wasn’t, you know, voter suppression. Well, that went away. And so, we don’t have that kind of protection now. And so, we have to continue to push hard and do the groundwork to ensure that everyone understand where their polling location is, check their voter status and then let’s help try to get people out to the polls while also working, at the same time, to push for early voting, online voter registration, those kinds of things.

MARTIN: The Republican Party is dominant in Mississippi now, but I have to ask you whether you think that the Biden administration has done enough to address these issues legislatively. There are, as you pointed out, a number of legislative proposals on the table. Do you think that the Democrats have pushed hard enough on legislation that would address some of these issues?

WELCHLIN: So, we’re nonpartisan. Well, this is what I will say when it comes to what this administration has done. It’s not just about the administration. This is an act of Congress. Congress has to do its part to ensure that we have a John Lewis Voting Rights Act, you know, the bill that would strengthen, you know, legal protections against discriminatory voting policies. So, it’s not just about the administration, it is about Congress, both parties coming together to ensure that people — that the people’s freedoms are centered in this debate, right, in this political context.

MARTIN: Before we let you go, why should people outside of Mississippi care about this?

WELCHLIN: So, they should care because it’s just human nature to care about people. They should care — and I — this is just my story, right? My mom making $2.13 had to hide me in the utility closet at her job back in the early ’70s while she goes out and clean the floors because she was a maid at one of the state agencies because she didn’t have enough money to take me to childcare. That was in the ’70s. This is still happening today. This is Mississippi, but we also know this is happening in the south, this is happening in the country, and this is happening around the world. People should invest in a place like Mississippi and in a place like the south. You shouldn’t write us off.

MARTIN: Cassandra Welchlin, thank you so much for talking with us today.

WELCHLIN: Thank you for having me.