Election registration cutoff looms

Published 9:50 am Wednesday, October 5, 2016

 

If you plan to vote in the Nov. 8 general election, you have until Saturday to register to vote.

The good thing is, Warren County Circuit Clerk Jan Hyland Daigre’s office and Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann’s office have teamed up to make it easy to do so.

Email newsletter signup

Sign up for The Vicksburg Post's free newsletters

Check which newsletters you would like to receive
  • Vicksburg News: Sent daily at 5 am
  • Vicksburg Sports: Sent daily at 10 am
  • Vicksburg Living: Sent on 15th of each month

The circuit clerk’s office will be open Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon to accommodate anyone who wants to register to vote.

And Daigre said voter registration thus far has been “very busy.”

If a would-be voter can’t get to the courthouse to register, Daigre said a new web page within the website for the Secretary of State’s website makes registering online easy.

The website address is yallvote.sos.ms.gov.

“You can type in yall or you can type in y’all. It will take you to the same website,” Daigre said. “It has forms you can electronically fill out and those will be sent to my office. Whether you need to change your physical address or if you are a new resident to Warren County, you can register on this website. It is very, very easy.

In addition to registering new voters, Daigre said her office has been busy with voters casting their ballots absentee.

“We’ve been very busy. We’ve probably done a hundred absentee votes so far,” she said.

The deadline to absentee vote for the Nov. 8 election is Saturday, Nov. 5.

The Warren County Circuit Clerk’s office will also be open that day from 8 a.m. to noon to accommodate last minute voters who want to vote absentee. The circuit clerk’s office will also be open the Saturday before — Oct. 29 — from 8 a.m. to noon for absentee voting.

“No other business will be conducted on those Saturdays other than absentee voting,” Daigre said. ““When we close the door at noon on Saturday, Nov. 5, that’s the last time you can absentee vote in this election.”

A few of the reasons voters qualify to cast absentee ballots in Mississippi are if the voter is going to be out of the county on election day, has to work on election day or is 65 years old or older.

She asked that those wishing to absentee vote — or who plan to vote in their precinct on Nov. 8 — remember to bring their voter identification.

“This hasn’t been a problem in our county. I think we have had three people over the years who have forgotten their ID. But even when you absentee vote, you must bring your ID,” she said.

Daigre also reminded voters they can cast their ballot curbside, either when absentee voting at the courthouse or when casting their ballot at their precinct on Election Day.

“If someone is not able to maneuver our courthouse, if they have limits that when they can’t do the elevator or the like, we will do curbside voting. And we have curbside voting at each precinct,” she said. “You just have to be a little patient. We want to do everything possible to make sure people get out and cast their ballot.”

The number to call for curbside absentee voting is 601-636-3961.

Daigre said the yallvote.com website developed by the Secretary of State’s office provides a link that identified voting precinct address, directions and phone number for those who wish to arrange curbside voting on election day.

“You can go to the y’all vote website, put in your address and it will tell you what precinct you should vote in, directions to that precinct and a phone number,” she said. “The biggest thing is, if you haven’t told my office that you have moved, we don’t know it. We get no notification when you change your address on your driver’s license, for instance. You have to let us know. You don’t want to wait until Election Day to let us know. It’s just a process on election day you don’t want to deal with.”