The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the special election to replace Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) – who resigned last December – will appear near the top of the November ballot.
The court ruled 8 to 1 that the ballot layout approved by Republican Governor Haley Barbour violated state election law by listing the race at the very bottom of the ballot. Barbour was chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1993 to 1997.
The ruling is a victory for Trudy Berger, the Pike County election commissioner who filed suit on September 9 to stop the Barbour ballot.
Barbour’s ballot design was widely criticized as an attempt to disenfranchise voters, particularly African Americans.
The governor’s preferred design appeared to exploit what political scientists call ballot drop-off: The lower a race appears on the ballot, the fewer people will cast a vote.
I thought the Republican Party was the party of ethics?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment