Senate likely to kill early voting, online registration

The Senate Elections Committee passed its own version of campaign finance reform on Wednesday and an 'omnibus' bill to clean up and tweak Mississippi election code.

Senate Elections Chairwoman Sally Doty, R-Brookhaven, said her committee would be open to a House-passed campaign finance bill, but indicated House proposals to allow early voting and online voter registration would be DOA if passed on from the House to the Senate.

"There are just too many concerns about online hacking -- even allegations from this last election -- to look at (online registration) this year," Doty said of a measure House Elections approved to allow first-time voters to register online. Last year, the Legislature approved people changing their registration online after they move, but the Senate stripped out first-time registration online.

"I just don't think we'll take that up this year as well," Doty said of a House proposal to allow people to vote up to 14 days before an election, similar to what many states allow. Doty's Elections vice chairman, Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, had authored early voting and online registration measures, but they appear set to die with Tuesday's deadline for committee passage.

The Senate committee did pass a bill Wednesday that would allow absentee voters to vote on machines in their local clerks' offices instead of using paper-and-envelope forms. SB2687, authored by Doty, would allow counties to decide whether to allow machine absentee voting.

The Senate committee passed SB2689, which would restrict personal use of campaign funds by politicians and strengthen reporting requirements. The Senate passed a campaign finance reform measure last year, and approved a later compromise version after negotiating with the House, but the House killed the bill late in the session. This year, the full House has already overwhelmingly passed a House campaign-finance reform measure authored by Speaker Philip Gunn.

Doty said the Senate would likely consider House campaign finance reform or work with the chamber to negotiate a final bill.

RELATED: House passes Gunn's campaign-finance reform measure

The main difference in the Senate campaign finance version -- which is basically the final conference version from last year -- and the House is the House measure provides enforcement teeth and gives campaign finance enforcement duties to the state Ethics Commission.

The House also has a mirror omnibus election code bill.

On Monday, House Elections Committee members, as they discussed and passed early voting and online registration with a unanimous, bipartisan vote, discussed the likelihood the Senate would kill the measures and noted it has killed other House proposals in recent years.

“My suggestion is, if they keep killing our stuff, let’s kill their stuff," said Rep. Robert Huddleston, D-Sumner. "… My point is, if you kill my dog, your cat is dead on arrival."

Senate Education on Wednesday also passed what Doty called, "My little pet bill." SB2707 would drop the requirement that college students away from home have their absentee ballots notarized, provided their signing "witness" is with the school registrar's office.

"I had a terrible time getting my two college students to vote," Doty said of her children. "They had to get it witnessed, had to get it notarized — it was an ordeal. This would delete the notary requirement, make it easier."

Contact Geoff Pender at 601-961-7266 or gpender@gannett.com . Follow him on Twitter .