Latest news with #MississippiRepublicanParty
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
MS attorney general investigating Gulfport mayoral candidate over meal vouchers
The Mississippi Attorney General's Office said Wednesday it is investigating Democrat Sonya Williams Barnes' campaign for Gulfport mayor after allegations that residents received meal vouchers in exchange for voting. In a letter addressed to Barnes, Attorney General Lynn Fitch said her office 'has reason to believe' the candidate may have violated several state campaign finance laws. Mike Hurst, chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party, said he asked state authorities to investigate alleged 'vote buying.' 'This is something that strikes at the heart of our democracy,' he said in a news conference across the street from the Gulfport Police Department. 'Votes should not be for sale.' Barnes did not immediately return messages on Wednesday. In a statement posted to social media, she said she is committed to 'voter engagement, civic responsibility, and ensuring that everyone participates lawfully.' 'I am not affiliated with, nor do I support, any illegal voter activity of any kind,' she said. The accusation of vote buying came less than a week before the election and intensified an already contentious race between Barnes and Republican Hugh Keating. Hurst said he learned of the allegations Monday night and believes vouchers are still being handed out to absentee voters. The vouchers, according to photos provided by the Republican Party, give voters 'one entry' to Ms. Audrey's Southern Kitchen and Catering in Gulfport for a 'special prepared meal now through June 3.' The Rev. Eddie Hartwell Sr., a pastor at St. James Baptist Church, said the voucher idea was his. The group behind it is called All Souls to the Polls and members say they want to increase voter turnout. Hartwell said he is not a member of either mayoral campaign and denied the efforts were illegal. 'All we're doing is saying, 'Go and vote,'' he said. 'As far as me telling somebody who to vote for? No, sir.' Hurst said he also asked state authorities to investigate an event on Saturday called 'Project 35's Vote & Vibe.' Barnes' campaign shared a flyer for the event on social media. The flyer encouraged voters to meet at City Hall, where it said they would receive wristbands after voting then attend brunch together. 'That is illegal. That is immoral. And that is un-American,' Hurst said. Mississippi law says it is illegal to try to influence absentee voters through money, rewards or any item of value. Anyone convicted of doing so can face fines between $500 and $5,000 and between one and five years in prison. Hurst also said he believes the efforts violate a law that forbids offering money or 'anything of substantial value' for a vote. Hartwell said the restaurant vouchers are worth about $10. Democrats on Wednesday dismissed the allegations and called them political. 'I stand for integrity and real leadership — unlike my opponent, whose campaign is relying on distractions rather than offering a true vision for Gulfport's future,' Barnes said. 'The recent press conference was nothing more than a scare tactic by his party to rally last minute support, and a desperate attempt to distract from their lack of vision for our city.' Rep. Cheikh Taylor, chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party, said the party was not involved in the voucher effort and called the allegations against Barnes a 'failed attempt to actually diminish the stature of the Democrat in the race.' He called Barnes 'an impeccable candidate.' 'Her merits and her service to the community are unmatched,' he said. Keating did not immediately return a phone call but said in a text message Wednesday evening that 'it is extremely important for the voters to know the facts presented at the press conference.' Keating and Barnes have both said they agreed to run clean campaigns. But the mayoral race has already grown tense. Mississippi Sen. Joel Carter of Biloxi alleged last month that 'cronies' of Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who in 2018 nearly defeated Georgia's Republican governor, were 'highly involved' in the election. Barnes said she alone is responsible for running her campaign and called the statement divisive. Turnout appears high already. By Wednesday, city officials said they had received 805 absentee ballots. There were just 177 absentee voters in the last mayoral election four years ago, according to the city. Records show Mayor Billy Hewes, a Republican who is not running for office again, won the 2021 general election with 2,680 votes. Barnes won the Democratic primary this spring with 3,316 votes. Keating had no Republican opponent in the primary. How fast the Attorney General's investigation will proceed was not immediately clear. The office usually does not comment on ongoing investigations. Assistant District Attorney Matthew Burrell said Wednesday that he also could not talk about ongoing investigations but confirmed the Public Integrity division of the Attorney General's Office 'is actively investigating this matter.' The Secretary of State's Office oversees elections and said it has no investigative authority. But spokesperson Elizabeth Jonson said Wednesday the office had 'received information from the City of Gulfport about alleged violations of Mississippi law through the use of vouchers given to those who vote.' Claims of election fraud have surfaced before in Mississippi: Jonson also said several people were convicted in connection to 'providing items of value to voters' in the 2017 municipal election in Canton. Punishments in those cases were minimal, according to news reports, and other charges were dropped. This is a developing story and may be updated. Anita Lee contributed reporting.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mail-in voting works. Trump is trying to change that.
Donald Trump's disdain for mail-in voting has been a thorn in the GOP's side for years. Since its use surged ahead of the 2020 election, he's occasionally hedged before returning to the notion that the extremely secure balloting method is a gateway to fraud. In an executive order signed Tuesday, he aims to kneecap mail-in balloting around the country and make the practice as ripe for abuse as he's claimed. The mail-in balloting provisions in Trump's order hinge on a fringe interpretation of a decades-old federal law establishing a uniform Election Day around the country. There are more than a dozen states that currently count ballots postmarked on or before Election Day, as long as they were received within a certain number of days. Under the reading the White House is promoting, states that count ballots received after Election Day violate the federal law, no matter when those ballots are postmarked. And under Article VI of the Constitution, federal law trumps state laws. Those states and voting rights advocates will argue that those ballots have been cast by the deadline, just haven't been received to be counted. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled otherwise last year in a case brought by the Mississippi Republican Party and the National Republican Committee. That decision didn't go into effect before last year's election and is limited to federal elections, not state and local races. It has also yet to be affirmed by any other court, but the Trump administration is clearly hoping to take it nationwide. Trump's order tasks Attorney General Pam Bondi with taking 'all necessary action' to enforce the Election Day law against states that count late ballots in the tally for presidential electors and members of Congress. It also orders the Election Assistance Commission to condition the funding it provides states to help run their elections on those states no longer counting ballots received after Election Day. (There is a specific carveout in the latter provision for ballots received from 'absent uniformed services voters and overseas voters.') The problems are obvious when you consider what's really being asked of states. States that conduct their elections almost entirely via mail, such as Washington and Oregon, would have to move their current deadlines, which now allow ballots to be mailed up to Election Day. Otherwise, they would be forced to reject ballots that they consider legal. Last year, Oregon counted just more than 13,000 of those ballots appropriately postmarked and received within the seven-day window allowed under state law. The order would also require states to rely solely on the U.S. Postal Service in returning mailed ballots. USPS' timeliness was already a concern in 2020 when recently retired Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was at the helm. The fear then was that DeJoy would in some way stymie the delivery of blank ballots to voters or their return to election officials. Those fears never materialized, but with Trump eyeing privatizing the Post Office or merging it under the Commerce Department, it's worth considering how an outright politicization of the mail force could affect election results. There will most certainly be lawsuits against the order, especially some of its even more intrusive provisions that place burdens on states that Trump has no power to order. On one level, I agree with election expert Rick Hasen, who argued Wednesday that the executive order is a 'dangerous power grab' that state officials from both parties should reject. There is a fundamental tension between the attempt to usurp power over elections from the states and the GOP's professed support for 'states' rights.' There is no tension, though, between Trump's order and previous conservative efforts to limit the number of people who can easily vote. The order acts as a back door to enact harmful proof of citizenship requirements that will likely face a Democratic filibuster if pushed through Congress. It also actively seeks to punish states who refuse to comply with a demand for 'information-sharing agreements' with the Justice Department to root out alleged voter fraud (a perennial unfounded GOP concern), which are more likely to be those states with Democratic leaders. When you couple in the Justice Department's hesitancy to back Voting Rights Act cases, this order will potentially disenfranchise millions of voters from casting their ballots safely. Even outside the worst-case scenario, one in which a Trump-controlled Postal Service withholds ballots in blue states until after the deadline has passed, the pieces are all in place for Trump to totally break mail-in voting. In doing so, the order completely subverts the principle behind setting a unitary Election Day — ensuring as many people can vote as possible — in the name of defending it. This article was originally published on
USA Today
30-01-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
January 6 rioters from Mississippi part of massive pardon by Trump. See who got released
Thanks to an executive action of President Donald J. Trump, at least four Mississippians who were convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot have been released and pardoned. The Clarion Ledger was able to identify four Mississippi residents who were released from U.S. Bureau of Prison custody on Jan. 20, according to bureau records. On his first day in office, Trump pardoned and commuted the sentence of about 1,500 people who were convicted for their roles in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. "This proclamation ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation," Trump wrote in the pardon order. The four Mississippians identified in the report were all convicted of either assaulting a police officer or committing violent acts on the U.S. capitol grounds. As of late last year, several others were also still being prosecuted. If they are convicted, the pardon would likely go into effect. Jan. 6 attack charity:This Mississippi organization is helping those convicted and in prison for the Jan. 6 riots State Sen. Kathy Chism, R-New Albany, cheered the decision by Trump. "I fully support your decision to make this pardon," Chism said in a Facebook post. "God bless you, the prisoners and America! At last God has given us a second chance through you President Trump and for that I am grateful." The Mississippi Republican Party did not specifically post about the pardon on social media, but it did applaud all of Trump's executive actions on day one and two in office, which included the pardon. "Day one was exactly what the American people wanted," the state GOP posted to the social platform X on Jan. 21, retweeting a White House post. Mississippi GOP Chairman Mike Hurst in September told the Clarion Ledger the state party had no affiliation with Jan. 6 rioters, and it did not support them in any way. "I view this as a former federal prosecutor, and if the federal courthouse in downtown Jackson, Mississippi, has court security officers, U.S. Marshals and magnometers to prevent people from coming in, and people break through those, they should be prosecuted," Hurst said of Jan. 6 rioters. "It's even more important if people do that at our United States Capitol building.' Hurst did not respond to a request for comment on this story by press time. On Jan. 6, 2021, hundreds of right-wing participants of a rally held by Trump stormed and occupied the U.S. Capitol building to try and stop the certification of the election. Five people died during and after the riot, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. Who got out of prison? As of last year, those four Mississippians were in prison for their roles in the riot, but as of Jan. 21, Lori Cyree, a charity organizer of My Brother's Keeper Oxford, a group assisting Jan. 6 rioters, was posting photos of some of the freed men back home in Mississippi on Facebook. Cyree did not respond to several requests for comment for this story. James McGrew, a former U.S. Marine from Biloxi, was serving a six-year sentence that began in 2022, and he was supposed to pay $7,000 in fines. He was convicted of assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer, civil disorders, obstruction of an official proceeding, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, an act of physical violence in the U.S. Capitol grounds or buildings, parading, demonstrating or picketing in a capitol building. Biden preemptively pardons Thompson:Biden pre-emptively pardons Mississippi's Bennie Thompson of House Jan. 6 panel Thomas Smith of Greenwood got out of serving a nine-year sentence that began in 2023, with an additional three years of supervised release also being taken away. Smith was convicted of assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon, obstruction of an official proceeding, two counts of civil disorder, two counts of assaulting, impeding or resisting officers, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct in the U.S. Capitol grounds or buildings and an act of physical violence in the U.S. Capitol grounds or buildings. Thomas Webster, who was formerly a member of the New York City Police Department, before moving his family to Mississippi and planning to follow, was released from a 10-year sentence that began in 2022, and he got out of three years of supervised release and a $2,060 restitution payment. Webster was convicted of forcibly assaulting an officer, obstructing or impeding an officer in the performance of official duties, entering a restricted building, disorderly or disruptive conduct. Craig Bingert of Yazoo City was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2023 for assaulting a police officer. MS Dems denounce release of Capitol rioters U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., in a press release on Jan. 20 had strong words for Trump about his decision to pardon those connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. 'With these pardons and grants of clemency, President Trump has started his second term just like he finished his first: with lawless contempt for our justice system and our democracy," Thompson said. "Many of these criminals were convicted of violent crimes against law enforcement. All have been found guilty or pleaded guilty of crimes against the United States — and all tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power on January 6 in servitude to Donald Trump and the Big Lie. To be clear, none were solely protesting or expressing their First Amendment rights. None are victims and none are hostages." Thompson chaired the select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack. Grant McLaughlin covers state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@ or 972-571-2335.
