JACKSON - The sponsor of a voter identification initiative says enough signatures have been certified to place the proposal on the election ballot.

State Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, the sponsor of the initiative that would require voters to show a government-issued photo ID before voting, said Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann will make the announcement Monday.

Fillingane said 131,000 signatures were certified, so "it will be placed on the 2011 ballot."

Hosemann has a news conference scheduled for Monday afternoon to officially announce whether enough signatures had been collected to place it before voters.

To bypass the Legislature and have an issue placed on the ballot for voters to decide, an initiative sponsor must gather 89,285 signatures of registered voters or 12 percent of the total voters in the 2007 gubernatorial election.

One-fifth of the signatures must come from each of the five congressional districts as they existed before the 2000 Census.

An initiative sponsor has one year to gather and submit the signatures to the Mississippi secretary of state's office.

Fillingane and the other voter identification supporters turned in the initiative signatures in mid-February. Hosemann's office has been counting those signatures since then.

His office also is checking to see if sponsors of an initiative that defines personhood as beginning at fertilization gathered the required number of signatures.

Those signatures also were submitted in February, and Hosemann has said that count will be completed in the coming days.

Only two other initiatives have been placed on the ballot. Both dealt with term limits and both were defeated. The last term limits issue on the ballot was in 1999.

Ironically, two or more could be on the ballot in 2011.

Besides the voter identification and personhood initiatives, a proposal is being offered to prevent the government from taking private land for the use of another private entity.

That proposal is sponsored by David Waide, president of the Mississippi Farm Bureau.

Waide recently predicted that Farm Bureau would get the required number of signatures by this summer and it would be on the 2011 ballot.



Contact Bobby Harrison at (601) 353-3119 or bobby.harrison@djournal.com.