Mississippi Secretary of State, Delbert Hosemann, appeared at a meeting of the Winston County Republican Women, on Monday, May 21, where he spoke concerning a variety of issues, but most concerned voting. The meeting was held in the courtroom of the Winston County Courthouse.
Hosemann was introduced by former State Senator Giles Ward; Hosemann was first elected as Secretary of State in 2007, and worked closely with Ward, whom he considers a close friend.
Hosemann pointed out that when he took office in 2008 Mississippi had no voter ID. Having to be in Washington, D.C. on other business, he took the opportunity to visit the Department of Justice to let them know about Mississippi’s plan. The visit resulted in the state’s voter ID legislation being approved. In the last statewide election, 99.9% of voters had an ID, and those who did not, had an ID provided by the state.
He added that Mississippi has had federal observers in the state, for presidential elections, since 1965. In the 2016 election, 28 states had observers; Mississippi was not one of them. Hosemann counts this as a great accomplishment for the state, and is a tribute to every Mississippian.
Another of the achievements during his tenure has been getting rid of paper documents. Hosemann stated that the Secretary of State’s office handles over 700K documents each year, all of them electronic. He added that no other state utilizes the level of information technology that Mississippi does.
Also dealing with technology is the development of the ‘Y’all Business’ website which can be accessed at: yallbusiness.sos.ms.gov. The website has won 11 national and international awards, and contains a massive amount of information about every county and city in the state.
Hosemann also pointed out the work that had been done to make it easier for overseas military personnel to vote, and asked that when we vote to remember the men and women serving to protect our right to vote.
Concerning hacking of the voting system, Hosemann stated that there are approximately 2K attempts per month to get into the statewide election management system. However, cyber security is a top priority, and with encryption technology and off-site storage hacking has not been a problem. He added that he is very skeptical of electronic or online voting and sees the possibility of some counties transitioning back to paper ballots to aid in the prevention of such problems.
Hosemann also pointed out the Promote the Vote campaign in high schools and community colleges with an aim of attracting more young voters.
