Primary Election Day

Mississippi’s primary election is used to determine the Democrat and Republican nominees for each office sought. Voters may only participate in one party’s primary.

Primary Runoff Election Day (if required)

Mississippi’s primary runoff election is not always required – many candidates are able to achieve the minimum 50% plus 1 vote threshold to gain the nomination on the Primary Election Day.

General Election Day

Mississippi’s  General Election is when all party nominees and independent candidates face off for the voters to choose a winner who must achieve 50% plus 1 vote at a minimum.

General Election Runoff Day (if required)

Mississippi’s General Election Runoff is held only if needed. Candidates who fail to achieve the required 50% plus 1 vote will compete in this election.

Unless expanded by judicial decree to address problems within a particular election, Mississippi law requires polls to be open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The Secretary of State offers a Polling Place locator (lookup results include a sample ballot for your address).

Absentee

There are two types of absentee voting in Mississippi: Mail-in and In-person. Summary information is below but full absentee voter information is available here.

Mail-in absentee voting is only available to some voters, including those who are disabled, those who are temporarily living outside their county, and those who are 65 years of age or older.

In-person absentee voting must be done early and is only available to people who qualify. Qualifications include voters who need to work on Election Day, those who will be away from their county of residence on Election Day, and anyone over the age of 65.

Mississippi law requires voters present a current photo ID card before casting a ballot (details here). The following types of photo IDs may be used on Election Day (source):

• A driver’s license (including a Digital ID provided by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety)
• A photo ID card issued by a branch, department, or entity of the State of Mississippi
• A United States passport
• A government employee ID card
• A firearms license
• A student photo ID issued by an accredited Mississippi university, college, or community/junior college
• A United States military ID
• A tribal photo ID
• Any other photo ID issued by any branch, department, agency or entity of the United States government or any State government
• A Mississippi Voter Identification Card (available at no charge – details here)

You can check if you’re registered to vote here using the Secretary of State’s registered voter search tool.

The Elections division at the Mississippi Secretary of State can be reached as follows:

Hotline: 800-829-6786

Call Center: 601-576-2550

County Election Information is available here (including Election Commissioner details).

In addition, the Mississippi Secretary of State’s main election site is Y’all Vote.

The Mississippi Voter Information Guide (below) was created by the Mississippi Secretary of State.