Voting in Mississippi

Contact your local clerk's office to find your polling location.

Voters can only vote absentee/by mail in Mississippi with an approved excuse. Approved excuses include:
- Enlisted or commissioned members of the United States Armed Forces, their spouses and/or dependents, who will be absent from their county of residence on Election Day
- Members of the Merchant Marines or the American Red Cross, or their spouses and/or dependents, who will be absent from their county of residence on Election Day
- Disabled war veterans who are patients in any hospital, or their spouses and/or dependents, who will be absent from their county of residence on Election Day
- Civilians attached to any branch of the Armed Forces, the Merchant Marines, or the American Red Cross and serving outside the United States, or their spouses and/or dependents, who will be absent from their county of residence on Election Day
- Trained or certified emergency response providers who is deployed on Election Day during any state of emergency declared by the President of the United States or any Governor of any U.S. State, who will be absent from their county of residence on Election Day
- Persons temporarily residing outside the territorial limits of the United States and the District of Columbia
- Students, teachers, or administrators whose employment or studies necessitate their absence from their county of voting residence, or their dependent or spouse who maintains a common domicile outside the county of voting residence
- Persons who will be outside their county of residence on Election Day
- Persons required to be at work on Election Day during the times at which the polls will be open
- Persons temporarily or permanently physically disabled
- Persons sixty-five (65) years of age or older
- Parents, spouses, or dependents of persons having a temporary or permanent physical disability, who are hospitalized outside their county of residence or more than fifty (50) miles away from their residence if the parents, spouses, and/or dependents will be with such persons on election day
- Members of the Mississippi Congressional delegation, or their spouses and/or dependents, who will be absent from their county of residence on Election Day.

Mississippi is a bottom-up state, so elections are run by county election officials. Please contact your county circuit clerk to see if you can vote early.

Mississippi has open primaries. Any registered voter can participate in primary elections, regardless of political party. 17-year-olds can vote in the primary election if they will be 18 by the corresponding general election.

Photo ID is required to vote in Mississippi. Valid forms of ID include:
- A driver's license
- 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

If you do not have an approved form of ID, you can get a free Mississippi Voter Identification Card at any circuit clerk’s office. Call 1 (844) MSVoter (1 (844) 678-6837) for Voter ID information or assistance in obtaining a Mississippi Voter Identification Card.

On Election Day if you do not present an acceptable form of photo ID or are unable to do so because of a religious objection, you are entitled to cast an affidavit ballot. A voter casting an affidavit ballot because he/she did not present an acceptable form of photo ID based upon a religious objection may not have his/her ballot rejected for this reason if he/she completes an Affidavit of Religious Objection in the Circuit or Municipal Clerk’s Office within five business days after Election Day. A voter casting an affidavit ballot because he/she did not present an acceptable form of photo ID may not have his/her ballot rejected for this reason if he/she presents an acceptable form of photo ID in the Circuit or Municipal Clerk’s Office within five business days after Election Day.