In May 2023, the League of Women Voters of Mississippi, Disability Rights Mississippi (DRMS), and three Mississippi voters filed a federal lawsuit challenging the newly passed bill, SB 2358. The bill would significantly restrict voting access for Mississippians with disabilities by limiting the people who can return a voter’s absentee ballot to a select number of sponsors. The plaintiffs are represented by the ACLU, ACLU of Mississippi, Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Mississippi Justice Center, and Disability Rights Mississippi.
SB 2358 would impose stiff criminal penalties on Mississippians who help members of their community cast an absentee ballot. It would prohibit anyone, including friends, neighbors, and volunteers from voter service groups, from helping a Mississippi voter cast an absentee ballot unless they are an elections official, family member, or caregiver. Because the term caregiver is not defined, health care workers would also be prohibited from helping residents cast their ballot.
The plaintiffs argued that SB 2358 violates the right of Mississippians with disabilities to receive assistance in voting from a person of their choice, as granted by Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act. More specifically, while Section 208 gives voters who need assistance because of a disability, blindness, or illiteracy the right to choose someone to assist them in all aspects of the voting process, with narrow employment-related exceptions, SB 2358 narrows the field of potential aides to a narrow category of aides chosen by the state. In July 2023, a district court enjoined the law, holding that Mississippi voters covered by Section 208 may choose someone to assist them in delivering or returning their absentee ballot. The order remained in effect through Mississippi’s 2023 election. The state appealed the order, and the case is currently pending in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.