JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court should overturn Mississippi’s Jim Crow-era practice of removing voting rights from people convicted of certain felonies, including nonviolent crimes such as forgery and timber theft, attorneys say in new court papers.

Most of the people affected are disenfranchised for life because the state provides few options for restoring ballot access.

“Mississippi’s harsh and unforgiving felony disenfranchisement scheme is a national outlier,” attorneys representing some who lost voting rights said in an appeal filed Wednesday. They wrote that states “have consistently moved away from lifetime felony disenfranchisement over the past few decades.”

This case is the second in recent years — and the third since the late 19th century — that asks the Supreme Court to overturn Mississippi’s disenfranchisement for some felonies. The cases use different legal arguments, and the court rejected the most recent attempt in 2023.

The new appeal asks justices to reverse a July ruling from the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said Mississippi legislators, not the courts, must decide whether to change the laws.

Stripping away voting rights for some crimes is unconstitutional because it is cruel and unusual punishment, the appeal argues. A majority of justices rejected arguments over cruel and unusual punishment in June when they cleared the way for cities to enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outside in public places.

Attorneys who sued Mississippi over voting rights say the authors of the state’s 1890 constitution based disenfranchisement on a list of crimes they thought Black people were more likely to commit. A majority of the appeals judges wrote that the Supreme Court in 1974 reaffirmed constitutional law allowing states to disenfranchise felons.

About 38% of Mississippi residents are Black. Nearly 50,000 people were disenfranchised under the state’s felony voting ban between 1994 and 2017. More than 29,000 of them have completed their sentences, and about 58% of that group are Black, according to an expert who analyzed data for plaintiffs challenging the voting ban.

To regain voting rights in Mississippi, a person convicted of a disenfranchising crime must receive a governor’s pardon or win permission from two-thirds of the state House and Senate. In recent years, legislators have restored voting rights for only a few people.

The other recent case that went to the Supreme Court argued that authors of Mississippi’s constitution showed racist intent when they chose which felonies would cause people to lose the right to vote.

In that ruling, justices declined to reconsider a 2022 appeals court decision that said Mississippi remedied the discriminatory intent of the original provisions in the state constitution by later altering the list of disenfranchising crimes.

In 1950, Mississippi dropped burglary from the list. Murder and rape were added in 1968. The Mississippi attorney general issued an opinion in 2009 that expanded the list to 22 crimes, including timber larceny, carjacking, felony-level shoplifting and felony-level writing bad checks.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in a 2023 dissent that Mississippi’s list of disenfranchising crimes was “adopted for an illicit discriminatory purpose.”

NORTH CAROLINA (WBTV) – North Carolina has some of the highest STD rates nationwide, according to a new study by the U.S. News & World Report.

The report analyzed the highest combined rates of three major sexually transmitted infections: Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, and Syphilis.

As far as the 10 states with the highest STD rates, N.C. ranked No. 7.

The data

According to the report, the state’s total STD rate is 911.5 per 100,000. That has actually decreased by -0.3% since 2022.

Rates for the three major STDs are:

• Chlamydia: 607.9 per 100,000
• Gonorrhea: 243.2 per 100,000
• Syphilis (cumulative): 60.4 per 100,000

South Carolina

South Carolina also has some of the highest STD rates in America, according to the report.

Ranked at No. 8 for the 10 states with the highest STD rates, the state’s total STD rate is 882.8 per 100,000. That has decreased by 10.9% since 2022.

Rates for the three major STDs are:

• Chlamydia: 612.1 per 100,000
• Gonorrhea: 222.4 per 100,000
• Syphilis (cumulative): 48.3 per 100,000

WBTV Investigates: Syphilis Tsunami: NC health officials plan campaign to slow the spread

Copyright 2024 WBTV. All rights reserved.

OKLAHOMA CITY – A proposal to open Oklahoma primaries is drawing criticism.

Earlier this week, supporters announced State Question 835 that seeks to obtain 172,993 signatures to get the issue on the November 2026 ballot.

Under the proposal, Oklahoma primaries would be open to all voters with the top two vote getters advancing to the general election.

Supporters said they expect a challenge to the measure.

Gov. Kevin Stitt on social media voiced his opposition.

“Oklahomans made decisions at the polls that these third party groups don’t like – so now they want to upend the way we run our elections,” Stitt said. “Open primaries are a hard no in Oklahoma.”

Likewise, Lt. Gov Matt Pinnell, former Oklahoma Republican Party chairman, opposes the proposal.

“At best, the push to mandate open primaries is a solution in search of a problem, and at worst, it is a thinly veiled attempt to weaken Republican voters in choosing the nominees to represent our party,” Pinnell said. “Oklahoma is a conservative state, and Republicans hold all the statewide and federally elected positions and super majorities in the Legislature for a simple reason: our values and principles represent the will of our state voters.”

But not all Republicans have panned the idea.

Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, a former Republican state senator, embraced it.

He said the system in which a mayor is elected allows all residents to vote.

“Our voters get to see all the candidates and our candidates have to face all voters,” Holt said. “As a result, our leadership delivers unity and consensus outcomes that are clearly moving us forward.”

The state question is being backed by Oklahoma United, a nonpartisan organization that says the change will increase voter participation, reduce polarization and force candidates to be responsive to all voters. It will also benefit independent voters, who can’t vote in Republican or Libertarian primaries. Democrats currently allow independents to vote in their primaries.

The idea is not new.

In 2017, the Oklahoma Academy recommended a top-two election system. Its report said a top-two system could increase turnout, reduce partisanship and “eliminate fringe special interest involvement in campaigns because candidates would be forced to respond to more moderate, general voters rather than play to the extremes of either party.”

The Oklahoma Academy is a nonpartisan group that works to educate Oklahomans about public policy.

Republican political consultant Fount Holland said he doubted Oklahoma voters would approve the proposal should it make the ballot.

“At the end of the day, it is about moderating the Republican primary,” Holland said.

He said the Republican Party takes things to the extreme, which is not the best way to govern.

Holland said no one enters the Republican primary as a moderate or very few can survive campaigning as a moderate.

“They might be moderate, but they don’t campaign that way,” Holland said.

He said he tells his clients to run to win.

If approved, the measure would be advantageous to Democrats or people who want a more moderate group of elected officials, Holland said.

Republican Superintendent Ryan Walters is considered by many to be ultra-conservative, while his predecessor Joy Hofmeister was considered a moderate member of the GOP, said Holland, who worked on her two successful races for superintendent. 

Walters has focussed on putting Bibles in the classroom and removing some books from schools, while Hofmeister prioritized across-the-board teacher pay increases and boosting counseling services in schools.

Hofmeister ultimately switched parties and made an unsuccessful run as a Democrat for governor.

“If you hate politics the way they are, then you need to be on our team, because we want to change it and we want to make it better,” said Margaret Kobos, Oklahoma United CEO and Founder.

She was asked about the partisan reaction to the proposal.

She said it misses the point because the issue is about people and not political parties.

Rep. Andy Fugate, D-Del City, supports the measure, saying it takes power away from the political parties and gives it to the people.

“Every voter. Every election,” he said. “That is the way democracy is supposed to work.”