The civic record
Read. Follow. Verify.Mississippi HB 789 automatically restores voting and jury service rights upon completion of sentence requirements
Last action · February 3, 2026: 02/03 (H) Died In CommitteeSponsors: Timaka James-Jones and 1 other
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What This Bill Proposed
House Bill 789 suspends the voting and jury service rights of individuals convicted of disenfranchising crimes upon conviction, but automatically restores these rights once all sentencing requirements are satisfied, effective July 1, 2026.
Changes the legal process for regaining civic participation by replacing individualized restoration procedures with automatic reinstatement of voter registration and jury list eligibility once criminal sentences are fully completed.
Who It Would Have Affected
Groups the bill's text would have affected, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Individuals convicted of disenfranchising crimes
Their voting and jury service rights are suspended upon conviction and automatically restored once all sentencing requirements are satisfied.
County election commissioners and registrars
They are required to update the Statewide Elections Management System, purge disqualified voters, and automatically restore voter rolls and jury master lists upon sentence completion.
Circuit clerks
They must maintain lists of convicted individuals, enter updates quarterly into the Statewide Elections Management System, and handle juror disqualification and reinstatement records.
Key Facts
You don't have to trust us. Each fact below is taken straight from the official document - click any one to see the exact passage, highlighted in the original.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens to an individual's right to vote upon conviction of a disenfranchising crime?
Are voter registration file details publicly accessible under this legislation?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
This bill did not become law - Died in committee.
Procedural history
2 actions- Feb 3, 2026House02/03 (H) Died In Committee
- Jan 16, 2026HouseCommittee01/16 (H) Referred To Apportionment and Elections;Judiciary B
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Shift to Automatic Restoration of Rights
The measure transitions voter and jury rights restoration from separate administrative or constitutional hurdles to an automatic process tied to sentence completion.
Connected Entities
Sources
billstatus.ls.state.ms.us
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance20Lowered because this bill did not pass (its text scored 75)
- Controversy80Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment10Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz45Current news / social attention level
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