Former lawmaker says Mississippi SHIELD Act could make voting harder

Sonya Williams Barnes warned in a guest essay for Mississippi Today Ideas that Senate Bill 2588, known as the Mississippi SHIELD Act, could make it harder for eligible residents to vote by imposing documentation requirements, she wrote.

Barnes, a former state representative, said the practical hurdles of obtaining required documents are greater than policymakers realize. She wrote that a birth certificate in Mississippi can cost $25 or more and a passport $165, and that some residents must drive as much as eight hours round trip to reach an office that issues official records.

She wrote that women can face extra complications when a birth certificate lists a maiden name while other legal documents show a married name. Barnes also said many Black Mississippians born during the Jim Crow era were delivered at home by midwives and never issued official birth certificates, a situation she described as documented in communities across the state.

Barnes wrote that only 22% of Mississippians have a valid passport and said Mississippi’s secretary of state has repeatedly maintained the state does not have a widespread voter fraud problem and that Mississippi has some of the safest elections in the country.

Barnes, who is the Mississippi state policy director at the Southern Poverty Law Center and wrote that she served 10 years as the state representative for the 119th District, said election security and voter access are not mutually exclusive and urged lawmakers to keep people at the center of the debate.

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