By John Howell
Poll workers in Tuesday’s election will greet voters arriving at polling places with small, electronic tablets that will quickly verify that the voter has arrived at the correct precinct.
The voter can present his or her state-issued identification and the tablet will instantly confirm the address within the precinct, Panola County Election Commission Chair Kaye Smythe said during a recent demonstration of the tablets at a meeting of the Batesville Exchange Club.
If the voter has arrived at the wrong precinct, the tablet will identify the voter’s correct precinct, Smythe said. The voter will then have two options: He or she can go to the correct precinct and cast a ballot electronically or remain at the first precinct and cast an affidavit ballot.
Either way, the vote will count, Smythe said.

“We’re not going to turn anyone away from voting, but we do want you to vote in the right precinct,” she said.

“There’s so much that goes on in an election before that one day,” Smythe continued, complimenting precinct workers and personnel of the Panola County Circuit Clerk’s office that handled 1,500 absentee ballots in the August party primaries.

Voters must have a state-issued photo ID to vote. A voter who arrives at a precinct without an ID card can still vote, Smythe said, by completing an affidavit ballot. The voter must follow up within five days at the Circuit Clerk’s office and provide a valid photo ID in order for the vote to be counted.

A driver’s license that has been expired for ten years or less is a valid ID for voting, she said.
Likewise, a driver’s license that was issued to the voter at an old address is valid for voting as well, she said.

“The name and photo must match; the address difference won’t matter.”
Other acceptable forms of ID include:
• A photo ID issued by the State of Mississippi, including school teacher ID’s issued by the district;
• A U.S. passport;
• A government employee photo ID;
• A firearms license;
• A student ID issued by an accredited Mississippi university, college or community/junior college;
• U.S. military ID;
• Tribal photo ID;
• Any other photo ID issued by any entity of the U.S. government or any state government;
• A Mississippi voter identification card.