JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – The November election is less than 100 days away, and two federal agencies are making a public service announcement to explain that while some cyber attacks are possible, not all pose a threat to the security of your vote.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) jointly released information on DDoS attacks on July 31.

DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service and works by overwhelming websites with traffic, making them inaccessible.

Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson says it may sound familiar to you.

“We saw this directly here in Mississippi a couple of years back in an election,” explained Watson.

The DDoS attack happened in 2022 and kept many people from accessing the Secretary of State’s website at different times on election day.

“It was only our public facing website,” noted Watson. “No election information was breached. What we did was harden our system with some new tools to make sure if that’s the attack that happens, we see it. We can tell exactly what’s going on, and we can further defend ourselves from it.”

However, many question the integrity of the ballots being cast and counted.

“When it comes to elections, you don’t want just secure elections,” said Sen. Jeff Tate, former Senate elections committee chairman. “You want the perception of your elections to be secure. Also that’s very important.”

There were already some security measures in place to keep hackers out of the equation in Mississippi.

“Unless you could hack into a plug in the wall, you couldn’t hack into those machines,” said Watson.

In 2022, legislation was passed that adds some back-up security.

“The counties were due for new equipment,” explained Tate. “One of the mandates that we put with this money is that it had to be purchased by 2024 it had to have a paper trail, and it could not have the capability of being hooked up to the Internet. So, not only can it not be hooked up to the Internet, it can’t have the capability of being hooked up to the Internet.”

Secretary Watson notes that election interference will likely come in many forms, including misinformation.

That’s why he is encouraging you to reach out to his office or your local circuit clerk before you go sharing the latest election-related rumor you see on social media.

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Predictions season is in full force as the entire country prepares to ramp up the excitement in anticipation of the 2024 college football season.

As many experts throw their hats into the ring for a preseason pick, many forget that a great simulation tool is now, after more than a decade, back at the fingertips of fans everywhere. With just the click of a few buttons, a week-by-week simulation of the 2024 football season can be viewed in incredibly depth. For Mississippi State, that means a couple surprising results.

Mississippi State – 35, FCS Midwest – 10

EA has Mississippi State handling its business in week one against the in-game counterpart of Eastern Kentucky University on August 31 of this year. First year transfer quarterback and redshirt senior Blake Shapen tossed for four touchdowns in the simulation and totalled 259 yards through the air on the day.

Davon Booth led all rushers with 60 yards on the ground on 17 carries and found the end zone once for the team’s fith touchdown of the game. Kevin Coleman torched the FCS Midwest defense for six receptions and 82 yards on his way to two touchdown grabs. You can’t win them all if you don’t win the first one, and Mississippi State did just that in this sim.

Mississippi State – 34, Arizona State – 17

MSU was able to double up the Sun Devils on the road after a 24 point fourth quarter. Shapen turned around a poor performance in the first half in which he threw two interceptions and threw three scores to elevate Mississippi State on the road.

Nick Barr-Mira made a pair of field goals to further elevate the Mississippi State offense after Davon Booth was shut down for just 33 yards on the day while managing to find the end zone once. Mississippi State entered week three with a 2-0 record and some adversity under its belt.

Mississippi State – 42, Toledo – 14

For the first time in the simulation, the Mississippi State offense really flexed its muscles against Toledo. Shapen lit up the box score with 401 yards through the air and five scores while also completing 26/31 passes.

Booth found the end zone once again on his way to a 54 yard performance on 16 carries while Kelly Akharaiyi had a breakout game with 176 yards through the air and a pair of touchdown receptions. Coleman shined again as the secondary target with a pair of touchdown receptions as well.

Stone Blanton lit up any ball carrier in sight, forcing one fumble and recovering two to give Mississippi State a commanding edge in time of possession. As far as the simulation was concerned, the Bulldogs were rolling into week four.

Mississippi State – 18, Florida – 34

This is where things began to turn south for MSU in the simulation. Shapen only completed just over half of his 35 passing attempts for 239 yards, two scores and one pick. Booth had success in the game and averaged 4.7 yards per carry, but because MSU found itself down early, only got 10 touches on the ground.

Despite a 15 point fourth quarter, MSU couldn’t dig itself out of the hole it was found in early after going down 24-3 at the end of the third quarter. Thus, MSU suffered the first loss of the season and went into week five 3-1.

Mississippi State – 14, Texas – 24

Most Bulldog fans would probably happy if this was the score of this year’s scheduled game against Texas in real life, to be fair. For one reason or another, Arch Manning drew the start against Mississippi State and did enough to win as he tossed the Longhorns’ only three touchdowns on the day.

CJ Baxter gave Mississippi State enough trouble on the ground to control the pace of play with 90 yards rushing on 15 carries. Coming away from Austin unscathed was highly unlikely to begin with, but MSU managed to keep it close.

Mississippi State – 35, Georgia – 34

Your eyes do not deceive you. In this simulation, Mississippi State shocks the College Football world and bests Georgia by one point in Athens.

MSU lived in the Georgia backfield and sacked Carson Beck a total of four times while holding Trevor Etienne to just 33 yards rushing in the game. Blake Shapen put on a masterful performance with over 350 yards through the air en route to three touchdown tosses and zero interceptions.

Kevin Coleman torched UGA for 167 receiving yards and a pair of scores. He also had 107 yards after the catch, showing off breakaway speed at the top of Mississippi State’s receiving charts. With this win, the Lebby tenure pulls off one of the biggest upsets in program history in his first year at the helm.

Mississippi State – 36, Texas A&M – 35

The Bulldogs hang on by a thread yet again against Texas A&M just a week after beating Georgia by the same minute differential. Shapen’s consistent and mistake-free play yet again guided MSU to victory in the simulation as he tossed three scores and zero picks.

The rushing attack was bottled up for Mississippi State with only 33 total yards on the day, but a pair of red zone scores was all it took to lift the Bulldogs to another narrow victory. Now at 5-2 with a pair of marquee wins, Mississippi State controlled its own destiny in the expanded playoff format.

Mississippi State 17, Arkansas 34

“The epitome of brutality” – Jon Rothstein. Yes, it’s a basketball reference, but it perfectly sums up Mississippi State’s week nine loss to Arkansas in the simulation.

Taylen Green lit up Mississippi State for 308 yards through the air and anther 27 on the ground for a pair of scores, but it was senior running back Ja’Quinden Jackson that did the most damage to the Bulldogs with 110 rush yards and another pair of touchdowns. Mississippi State’s dream season is suddenly given a reality check, and the Bulldogs fall to 5-3.

Mississippi State – 21, UMass – 34

When it rains, it pours. Mississippi State had already won enough games to make it to a bowl if it just took care of business outside of the conference, but alas, UMass had other plans.

Despite Akharaiyi and Coleman both having more than 100 receiving yards on the day, the MSU offense falls short, and the defense didn’t help itself out, either. De’Monte Russell had the Bulldogs’ lone sack on the day. Woof.

Mississippi State – 14, Tennessee – 31

The downhill slide only gets worse in week 11. Mississippi State can only muster two scores in the loss to the Vols, while Tennessee put up points in all four quarters.

A trio of rushing touchdowns by Dylan Sampson, Nico Iamaleava and Cameron Seldon sealled the deal for Tennessee and secures their spot as the nation’s fifth best team at Mississippi State’s peril in the simulation. At 5-5, the outlook is bleak for MSU’s bowl chances.

Mississippi State – 14, Missouri – 38

The simulation is high on Missouri in 2024, and rightfully so for a team that is returning a metric ton of production. However fans view them at the No. 1 spot, they beat the simulated Mississippi State team down like they deserved the spot.

Brady Cook left the game early for the Tigers, but the two headed dragon of Marcus Carroll and Nate Noel were too much out of the backfield for Mississippi State as they combined for three scores on the ground.

The Tigers bottled up Shapen and the MSU passing attack, only allowing 158 yards through the air. Mississippi State’s bowl hopes relied solely on the Egg Bowl now.

Mississippi State 14, Ole Miss 26

The odds weren’t great for Mississippi State as they hit the road for the short drive to Oxford, but they were almost shut out in the game save for a 14 point fourth quarter.

Again, Shapen and company were locked up for just 261 yards through the air and a single score, while the MSU rushing attack was almost nonexistent. MSU’s Egg Bowl loss marked the second straight season that the Bulldogs would not make any postseason trip.

Mississippi State ended the simulated season at 5-7 (2-6) and 14th in the SEC – not terribly far from where many experts have the Bulldogs picked. Despite two marquee wins against top 25 teams, it was the devil in the details that held Mississippi State back from six wins in Jeff Lebby’s first season.

A poll worker in Richmond holds an “I Voted” sticker. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)

Republican officials in Virginia and nationwide – recognizing the ongoing shift in racial demographics across America – surely would overhaul their messaging, I reasoned, to become more welcoming toward African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and others.

The GOP would favor increasing voter registration totals, I thought. It would work diligently to persuade more folks to its side with an inclusive, less-accusatory agenda. Gone would be the days of demonizing people of color on conservative mouthpieces like Fox “News.”

After all, gaining just a tiny segment of non-white voters should ensure repeated electoral victories, especially in presidential contests. Such a strategy would allow the party to actually win the popular vote more often this century. There would be no need to manufacture barriers to the ballot box for groups that usually support Democrats. 

What a fool I was.

Republicans want to keep power and pretend they’ve earned a mandate, even though in 2022 they garnered a small majority of votes nationwide in the U.S. House of Representatives. Even though at least 29 states have passed 94 restrictive voting laws since the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013.

The latest evidence of Republicans erecting hurdles for would-be voters comes from the federal judiciary. In July the “most conservative appellate court” in the country – as Mother Jones put it – reinstated a Jim Crow-era felon disenfranchisement law in Mississippi.

Virginia’s own 1901-02 Constitution mimics the racist precepts in Mississippi’s; they’re a perpetual stain on the commonwealth.  We’re the only state that permanently strips voting rights from convicted felons unless the governor restores them. Virginia utilized now-defunct poll taxes and literacy tests, too, that targeted Black voters.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals just upheld a Mississippi law dating to 1890 that permanently prevents residents there from voting if they’ve been convicted of any of about 100 crimes. They include such nonviolent offenses as timber larceny, writing a bad check and bigamy.

The 13-member majority overturned a three-judge panel of its own court that said the law violated the 8th Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Revealing the ongoing politicization of the federal judiciary, all but one of the majority judges were appointed by Republican presidents. Six judges appointed by Democrats dissented.

The law was upheld despite the fact it was adopted as part of a state Constitution designed to maintain white supremacy. “We came here to exclude the Negro,” said Solomon S. Calhoon, the constitutional convention president, more than a century ago. “Nothing short of this will answer.”

Felons in Mississippi are disproportionately Black. However – as I’ve noted previously – Black people and other minorities are treated more harshly than white people are for the same crimes. The Mother Jones article reported that from 1994 to 2017, the law disenfranchised nearly 50,000 people. African Americans comprise 38% of the state’s population – the highest percentage among U.S. states.

Still, it’s curious Mississippi is so vengeful, given Republicans rarely face serious challenges in the state.

The last time the Magnolia State picked a Democrat for president was fellow Southerner Jimmy Carter in 1976. For the U.S. Senate, it last picked a Democrat in 1982. Rep. Bennie Thompson, serving a district including Jackson, the state capital, is the lone Democrat among four members in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“It’s probably the … most racialized state in the nation,” David Lublin, professor and chair of the department of government at American University, told me during an interview. Lublin wrote “The Republican South: Democratization and Partisan Change.”

The post-Reconstruction constitutions in the South aren’t badges of honor, he noted: “These were not adopted for nice reasons.”

That’s putting it mildly.

Lublin said because we live in such a highly polarized nation, both Democrats and Republicans fight “tooth and nail” over any advantage – though Democrats might be on the moral side of the voting rights argument.

“No one likes to give up advantages,” he added. 

Here in Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin has restored voting and other civil rights to 7,575 people, his spokesman Christian Martinez said. The state Constitution requires him to make “restoration decisions on an individualized, case-by-case basis,” Martinez told me by email.

Lawsuits have been filed against the administration because of the opaqueness of the process.

Martinez wouldn’t answer whether Youngkin supports a constitutional amendment that would allow automatic restoration. House Republicans killed such a legislative attempt after he took office in 2022.

The total number of restorations by Youngkin is dwarfed by those approved by his predecessors, who made the system more streamlined. Republican Bob McDonnell signed off on more than 10,000. Democrat Terry McAuliffe approved more than 173,000, and  Democrat Ralph Northam restored rights to more than 126,000 people.

Is it political, since so many Black and Latino voters support Democrats? Yes.

It’s also the right thing to do to re-engage Virginia residents regarding their citizenship duties. Voting gives people a stake in their communities. Given the racist history of felon disenfranchisement in Virginia, legislators should support the amendment process and allow people released from prison to regain their rights automatically.

I know this is a tough sell for Republican lawmakers, in Virginia and elsewhere, who value power over equity. I’m probably delusional.

Doesn’t mean I’m wrong.