In June, just 13.5 percent of registered voters went to the polls in the primary elections, and Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann seems to have taken it personally.
“Embarrassing,” said Hosemann, whose office oversees the state’s elections. “We had a historically poor turnout, even though there were some important races.”
For months now, Hosemann has been on the road, talking to voters about the election and visiting high schools to encourage seniors who may be of voting age to register and vote.
Tuesday, which also happens to be National Voter Registration Day, Hosemann will visit Columbus.
Hosemann, along with Lowndes County Circuit Clerk Teresa Barksdale, will hold an informal session for citizens and answer any questions about the Nov. 6 general election. The meeting will be held at noon at the Lowndes County Courthouse.
“Some of the bigger things we’ll talk about are why the turnout was so low in June and how we can increase turnout in the November election,” Hosemann said. “We’ll also talk about voting security, the integrity of the election process and things such as military voting, which has already started. I know there are a lot of military families in the Columbus area, so getting the word out about how deployed military can vote could be useful.”
As he has done in several other trips around the state, Hosemann will visit Columbus High School at the request of Rep. Kabir Karriem (D-Columbus).
“We’re going to have a voter registration drive for the seniors, and I invited Mr. Hosemann over to speak to the senior class and encourage them to register and to vote,” Karriem said. “I really appreciate him doing that because it sends a message to the young people that this is a bi-partisan effort.
Hosemann is a Republican.
“I really think it’s important to get people involved at an early age,” Karriem said. “We want to give them information and, hopefully, they can go home and share it with their parents, too.”
Hosemann will also visit New Hope High School to speak to the seniors there and will attend at voter registration event at Mississippi State at 10 a.m.
All eight state-supported universities are holding voter registration events as part of Tuesday’s National Voter Registration Day.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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