The U.S. Justice Department has cleared a consent decree between Mississippi Republicans and the Leflore County Election Commission intended to clean up voting practices.
The Leflore County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 Monday to accept a Nov. 29 letter from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
The letter states the department has no objection to the consent decree between the GOP and Election Commission, which requires the commission to follow existing state law while holding elections. The decree also prohibits cell phone usage after voters have signed the poll books.
The agreement was made to settle a lawsuit that Republicans filed over chaotic conditions at the polls during the 2008 presidential election.
Supervisors Wayne Self, Phil Wolfe and Robert Collins voted to accept the letter; Supervisors Robert Moore and Preston Ratliff voted no.
Ratliff said his concern is that if a change is needed to help the people, it takes years of litigation, but that if the Republicans ask for it, changes are made as if they are a trivial thing. For example, he said it took roughly 100 years for blacks to regain the right to vote following Reconstruction.
Changes to voting laws in Mississippi require Justice Department pre-approval because of a history of racial discrimination.
Ratliff said allowing changes without going through the proper channels required by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 could lead to bigger problems in the future.
“If they don’t follow this step-by-step on simple things, something important is going to slip by,” Ratliff said.
The brief letter from the Justice Department also said that the fact that it has no objection to the consent decree does not prevent others from suing to stop its enforcement.
State Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, has intervened, arguing that the consent decree changed state election law and thus required pre-approval from the Justice Department. A hearing, which had been scheduled in Holmes County, was delayed pending word from the Justice Department.
Jordan referred calls this morning to his attorney, Willie Perkins. Perkins declined to comment.
Moore said this morning he voted against accepting the letter because he didn’t agree with the decision. He had originally intervened alongside Jordan but was removed because of his involvement with the Election Commission through the Board of Supervisors.
Board Attorney Joyce Chiles said she assumed the intervention is still pending, but she said no hearing date has been set.
Also Monday:
- Clean-up day for the Buckeye and Grenada Boulevard areas is set for Saturday. The county will accept only items it normally accepts, according to County Administrator Sam Abraham. Ratliff said for previous cleanup days there was no discussion about what could and couldn’t be picked up. Abraham said the rules are the same for everyone.
- The board voted 4-1 to perform work to overlay a portion of the parking lot at Delta Correctional Facility. Corrections Corp. of America, which contracts with the state to run the prison, will pay for the materials; the county will provide the labor and equipment. Ratliff voted against it, asking what benefit the county would receive from doing the work. Abraham said the county gets more than 200 jobs from the prison and revenue from CCA and its employees doing business in the community.
- By a 2-2 vote, supervisors declined a request from Ratliff — which he said was on behalf of the town of Schlater — to repair two streets in the Schlater square. Moore and Ratliff voted for the project; Collins and Wolfe voted against it. Self abstained.
- The board accepted a $200,000 grant for a ramp extension project at Greenwood-Leflore Airport. The total cost for the project is $486,000, but Abraham said much of that amount includes in-kind labor contributed by the county to do the work.
- The board went into executive session to discuss Waste Cnnection’s counter proposal in a lawsuit regarding the county landfill. The board eventually authorized attorneys to continue negotiations.
• Contact Charlie Smith at csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
