Oktibbeha County's voter rolls have swollen to include over 25,500 registered voters—and the local NAACP chapter hopes to spend Election Day with watchful eye's spread out across Starkville's 21 polling places in an effort to promote voter safety.
The local initiative will see over 20 volunteers spend time spread out across Starkville, ensuring voter safety—and the group will report any incidents or possible misconduct to the Oktibbeha County Circuit Clerk's office. Complaints would then be filed to the Mississippi Secretary of State's office in Jackson.
The county NAACP chapter held a meeting last Thursday to coordinate observation efforts, according to local NAACP president Chris Taylor.
"We talked about what to do at each polling place, in the event of something happening," Taylor said. "We helped coordinate who will work where. We wanted to find people in each part of Starkville so that voters might recognize our volunteers. It's good to know people in the community. It's important that they live in these neighborhoods."
Taylor said it was vital to provide a safe environment for all voters, regardless of political affiliation, while remembering the struggles made by activists during the Civil Rights-era in the 1960s.
"People fought for the right to vote, and we don't want to see any voter intimidation of any kind out here in our county, or anywhere else," Taylor said emphatically. "We are concerned with the safety of every voter here in Oktibbeha County."
The county's efforts tie into the NAACP's national Selma Initiative to protect voters. The nationwide effort will see lawyers deployed in states across the country to ensure voter safety. A hotline will also be set up to field complaints or concerns from voters.
The national initiative mobilized over 2,000 NAACP chapters, according to the group. The effort will target 17 vulnerable states, while supporting all 50. The association has reached out to more than 6,000 precincts where African American populations are above 65 percent.
For more, see the Nov. 7 edition.