Should Federal Oversight on Mississippi’s Election Procedures Continue?

The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on April 29th about whether federal oversight of election procedures should continue in Mississippi, and other- mainly Southern- states. These requirements were put in the original Voting Rights Act of 1965, making them more than 40 years old.

To any honest observer (so that doesn’t include you Bill Minor), a lot has changed in those past 40 years, and it may be time for an update and re-evaluation. The bill does come before Congress for re-authorization at times (most recently back in 2006), but most members of Congress don’t want to deal with the backlash from the NAACP and other groups who are ready to play the race card should they look to make changes.

A couple governors, Sonny Perdue of Georgia and Bob Riley of Alabama, have said that the continued obligation is not necessary. Like Mississippi, Barack Obama won a higher percentage of the vote in Georgia than John Kerry did in 2004, which was a point made by Perdue. Riley has said that blacks register to vote and cast ballots in the same proportions as whites in Alabama, and make up a percentage of the legislature that reflect the black population. The same is true in Mississippi.

Mississippi has seen tremendous growth among black elected officials since 1970, and can claim more black office holders than any other state in the union. The knock on this that we will hear from the Ronnie Agnew’s of the world is that the state has never elected an African-American to a statewide office. My response is simple: the day the Republicans nominate a qualified, conservative black candidate- he or she will win. If the Democrats keep nominating liberals- they will keep losing in the same fashion that white liberals lose.

Haley Barbour has been relatively quiet about this case. He has said that he isn’t seeking a change to the current law, but that the Voting Rights Act should apply to every jurisdiction in the country (rather than a select few).

The interesting thing about the original law and the upcoming case is that it is now black officials who are discriminating against white voters in many cases. Ike Brown and Noxubee County is the first example you may think of, but similar issues have risen in Wilkinson County.

Just like the state Democrats no longer need quotas to determine their committees, the state doesn’t need the Justice Department looking over our backs when it comes to handling elections.