Legislative Update 71

March 12, 2010

Dear Friend,

2011 Ballot will Feature Voter I.D.

In 2008, I served as one of three House members on the Comprehensive Election Reform Review Panel chaired by Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann. As we traveled across the state speaking with election personnel and Mississippi voters, it was clear that the specter of election fraud in Mississippi had done much to erode the public’s trust in our election process.

After concluding my work with this panel and convening a local volunteer Voter I.D. Committee, I wrote an opinion editorial titled “The Time is Right for Fair and Responsible Election Reform” that appeared in several Mississippi newspapers. In this article I cited Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas as states where Voter I.D. has worked.

During the 2009 session, I authored a bill requiring Voter I.D. that died a public death during a hearing in the House Elections Committee. Later that session, I helped the House pass another bill that contained an even stronger Voter I.D. requirement. Unfortunately, this bill died in the Senate Elections Committee.

As the Clarion Ledger’s Sid Salter points out in his latest blog, the same individuals who helped kill Voter I.D. in the Senate led the initiative to place Voter I.D. on the 2011 ballot. Frankly, I’m just glad they came around. For too long, Voter I.D. has been a political hot potato used by politicians to advance their own narrow political agendas. Mississippi deserves better. I’m grateful that in 2011, we’ll have the opportunity to put this issue to rest once and for all.

House Bill 1555 Lands on the Governor’s Desk

For the last two years, I have been working closely with the State Board of Contractors, homebuilders, and consumer advocates to modernize our construction laws and prevent contractor fraud. While we’ve managed to get many of these bills out of committee and even passed on the floor, almost all of these measures have died on the calendar.

Thankfully, our work has paid off and we finally have a bill that has made it through the process and to the Governor. House Bill 1555 would require a builder to let a homeowner know whether or not they have general liability insurance at the time a contract is signed. This bill will help protect Coast homeowners who use contractors and encourage these builders to purchase the proper insurance.

We still have a long way to go in creating laws that protect Mississippi homeowners from construction fraud but this is an important first step.

How To Contact Me

As always, I invite you to call me on my cell phone at 228-326-7649 or e-mail me at bjones@house.ms.gov. For real time updates, you can also follow me on Twitter under the user name "brandoncjones". If you haven't heard of Twitter, you can check out my page at http://twitter.com/brandoncjones or by following the link on my website. Please feel free to forward this report to folks in our district and let me know if I need to add someone to my list. You can follow legislative proceedings by going to www.ls.state.ms.us.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve,

Brandon