Does Mississippi ballot violate Voting Rights Act?
Today, Mississippi’s state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about whether state election officials acted improperly by putting the hotly-contested race to replace Sen. Trent Lott (R) at the bottom of the ballot. Earlier this year, Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann — with Gov. Haley Barbour’s approval — put the special election between Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican, and former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, a Democrat, near the bottom of the ballot. Democrats believe that Republicans made the decision to de-emphasize a race that shows Musgrove within shooting distance of winning. Democratic state Attorney General John Hood says the move violated state law, which requires national elections to go at the top of the ballot. And now Democrats nationally are arguing the decision violated the Voting Rights Act, because of the risk of confusing and therefore disenfranchising voters. As Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) stated yesterday: “Attempts to disenfranchise any of our nation’s eligible voters
