JACKSON, Miss. (Legal Newsline) –Those with physical disabilities or dependents who could be more susceptible to the effects of COVID-19 won’t get to vote by absentee ballot in Mississippi.
The state Supreme Court recently ruled that way in a challenge to the state’s voting laws, which allow for any person with a temporary or permanent physical disability to vote by absentee ballot.
Plaintiffs wanted to extend that to individuals who had medical conditions that made contracting COVID-19 a more dangerous proposition than others, as well as to those who had dependents in similar positions.
A trial court granted those requests but stopped short of letting anyone vote absentee if they were fearful of COVID-19. Secretary of State Michael Watson appealed, and the Supreme Court sided with him.
“Having a preexisting condition that puts a voter at a higher risk does not automatically create a temporary disability for absentee-voting purposes,” Justice Dawn Beam wrote.
The court also said there is no provision in state law that would allow a doctor’s COVID-19 guidance to create an exception.
“Had the Legislature intended to allow a voter to vote absentee based on a physician’s recommendation, it would have provided so accordingly with plaint language,” the decision says. “The Legislature did not do so.”