Sec. of State says woke, uninformed college students could sway elections under voter reform

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson spoke out against voting reform efforts.

In an interview with WLOX last month, Watson said some efforts being sought out by Democrats will register people to vote, “who don’t want to vote” or are uninformed.

“Mississippi is doing things the right way under the system we have now,” Watson said.

He says there was no widespread voter fraud in Mississippi, though there were a few cases of potential fraud his office is still investigating.

Watson says the idea of no-excuse early and absentee voting as well as “ballot drop boxes” that some states currently have will be forced upon states under new federal reform efforts that will “take away our ability to manage elections here in Mississippi by the federal government.”

“It’s a bad idea,” he said.

“We want to make it easier for Mississippians to vote,” he said. “...but you balance that with the integrity of the system.”

Watson also suggested he doesn’t believe a Republican could ever win another national election if the voting laws passed.

He then blasted an executive order passed by President Joe Biden earlier in March that expands voter registration and election information.

Watson suggested these laws would lead to people being registered to vote and receiving a mail-in ballot despite being “uninformed.”

“Think about all these woke college and university students now who are automatically registered to vote, whether they wanted to or not, again if they didn’t know to opt out then receive a mail-in ballot that they probably didn’t even know was coming because they didn’t know they registered to vote. You’ve got an uninformed citizen who may not be prepared and ready to vote automatically forced on them, ‘hey go make a choice,’ and our country’s going to pay for those choices.”

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