By Kimberly Jones Merchant, MCJ President and CEO
Our democracy is in a state of emergency.
The rights that past generations marched for, fought for, and risked their lives for are under threat. The representation that Black, Latino and AAPI communities spent decades fighting to secure in the halls of Congress and in statehouses across the country is at risk of being erased. Not by accident, but by design. And here in Mississippi, we are feeling that threat more acutely than almost anywhere else.
New Laws Are Putting Up New Barriers to the Ballot
At the federal and state levels, lawmakers are moving quickly to make it harder for Mississippians to vote.
Here in Mississippi, Governor Tate Reeves signed the SHIELD Act into law, with an effective date of July 1, 2026. The law creates new citizenship verification requirements that could place new burdens on eligible voters to register, remain on the rolls, and participate in elections. On the surface, it might sound like common sense, but in practice we understand that this legislation will make it harder for some eligible voters to participate in our democracy. This is especially true for women, low-income individuals, and rural Mississippians who may not have a passport, whose names have changed due to marriage, or who simply cannot afford the time and money required to track down official documents.
This law could disenfranchise Mississippians who were born without a birth certificate, whose documents were lost or destroyed, or who live hours away from the offices where records can be obtained. For people already struggling to make ends meet in the middle of a national affordability crisis, this is no small burden. It is the modern equivalent of a poll tax.
Nationally, the federal SAVE Act would require documentary proof of citizenship — such as a passport or naturalization certificate — just to register to vote in federal elections. That bill passed the House and is still being fought over in the Senate. Together, these measures do not protect the integrity of our elections. They shrink the electorate, deliberately, and disproportionately among communities already facing the greatest barriers to civic participation.
Gerrymandering Is Silencing Our Communities
The attacks on voting rights are also being carried out through redistricting.
Across the country, Republican-led efforts to redraw congressional and state legislative maps are designed to dilute the voting power of Black, Latino, and AAPI communities. The goal is not just to win elections, but to lock in political power for generations, regardless of what voters actually want.
The latest Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais has emboldened state policymakers to look at congressional districts with Black representation and find ways to erase it. The impact is that voters across America will have fewer representatives who look like them, share their experiences, and fight for their interests in Congress and the statehouses across the country. But we will continue to take a stand. We fought for political representation. We are not going to watch it gerrymandered away without a fight.
The Supreme Court Will Decide Whether Your Ballot Counts
This summer, the United States Supreme Court will rule on whether to uphold Mississippi’s law allowing mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrive within five business days after the election.
For many Mississippians, this law is a lifeline and may be the only way they can make their voices heard in our elections. Voting in Mississippi is already one of the hardest things a citizen can do. Limited polling locations, long distances to travel, inflexible work schedules, and unreliable mail service combine to make participating in democracy an obstacle course. For some voters, Election Day itself is the only day they can realistically return a ballot.
If the Supreme Court strikes down this law, those ballots, and those voices, will simply not count. We have been fighting to defend this law because we believe every vote deserves to be counted. The people of Mississippi deserve nothing less.
This Is Not the Time to Sit on the Sidelines
If we do not defend our right to vote now, we may not have the opportunity later. The window to act is open. It will not stay open forever.
Here is what you can do today:
- Write to your member of Congress. Tell them you oppose the SAVE Act and any legislation that adds new barriers to voter registration.
- Write to your state legislators. Make your voice heard on redistricting and any state-level voter suppression efforts.
- Show up to rallies and town halls. Visibility matters. Your presence sends a message.
- Check your voter registration. Make sure you are still on the rolls and that your information is up to date.
The freedoms we enjoy today were not handed to us. They were won — sometimes at tremendous personal cost — by people who refused to accept that some voices mattered less than others. We owe it to them, and to the generations who come after us, to protect what they built.
Democracy is under attack, and what we do next will determine whether it survives.
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