In 2016, Jarrius Adams’ absentee ballot never arrived at his apartment in Oxford, so the then-19-year-old at the University of Mississippi was left with one option to vote: Skip all his classes and drive four hours home to his polling place in Hattiesburg. 

Faced with a similar situation, the reality is most college students would decide not to vote, said Adams, who now works with the nonprofit Mississippi Votes. 

“For some students, it’s just as simple as eating three times a day now that you have no supervision,” he said. “To add voting for the first time?” 

It can be hard to cast a ballot in Mississippi, where state voting laws consistently rank as among the strictest in the nation. 

But for the state’s tens of thousands of college students — many of whom are voting for the first time while also trying to stay on top of homework, classes, chores and having a social life — the barriers to the ballot box faced by all Mississippi voters pose an even greater challenge. 

Mississippi is one of just three states without early voting. This means college students who choose to vote in person most likely have just one day to get to the polls, which are not always on campus. According to a list provided by the Secretary of State’s office, three of the eight public universities in Mississippi lack an on-campus polling location for this election. 

When college students turn 18 in Mississippi, they are not automatically registered to vote if they have a driver’s license, a law on the books in 23 other states. There’s no same-day voter registration, which voting experts say can pose an issue for college students whose addresses, and therefore precincts, change more often than other voters. And Mississippi doesn’t have online voter registration for new applicants. 

Mississippi “pretty much has all the things that make it hard to vote,” said Jennifer McAndrew, the senior director of strategic communications for Tisch College at Tufts University, which houses the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement.

Nevertheless, colleges and students who have been working all semester long to encourage their peers to vote say that young Mississippians pursuing higher education are motivated to turn out this Election Day. 

“Our young Mississippians are the future of our state,” Secretary of State Michael Watson, who has visited colleges across the state to talk to students about voting, said in a statement. “It is important for them to educate themselves not just on the voting process, but also the policies and issues affecting the state and nation..”

At Ole Miss this semester, the Center for Community Engagement has registered more students to vote before the deadline in an election year than it ever has before: About 350 students, according to William Teer, the program director for student leadership programs and financial well-being. 

Now, it’s just a matter of getting these students to the polls. 

“Everyone hears about how young people and college students in particular don’t vote in huge numbers for whatever reason,” said Marshall Pendes, a senior math and economics major who serves as a voting ambassador at Ole Miss. “I get a chance as a student to try and change that.” 

Pendes cited a study that Tufts’ National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement conducted of student voting at Ole Miss, which found that about 15,000 students — more than 75% of campus — were registered to vote during the last presidential election.

That’s in part because of the efforts of voting ambassadors like Pendes. In his four years at the university, Pendes estimated he’s helped register more than 600 students. He’s helped students complete the Mississippi Secretary of State’s paper registration application all across campus, at fraternities and sororities, before and after class, during student government meetings, in the Circle and at meetings for all kinds of political clubs. 

But not so much on in the Grove.

“During games, people aren’t really interested in doing paperwork,” Pendes said. 

The goal is to educate students on how, where and why it’s important to vote, Pendes said, whether that’s in-person in the county where they attend school or at home through an absentee ballot. 

“One of the great things about voting as a college student is you have so many choices,” he said. “Every person’s situation is different.”

Even though college students qualify for an absentee ballot in Mississippi, students say it’s far more common for their peers to register to vote in their college’s county.

“It’s more common for students to register on campus,” said Avantavis TyMon, an elementary education major at Alcorn State University who is also a Mississippi Votes’ Democracy in Action fellow. “It’s easier, and it’s more accessible … especially for the out-of-state students who don’t have cars.” 

Alcorn State University is one of five public universities that will host on-campus precincts this year, along with Mississippi Valley State University, Mississippi State University, the University of Southern Mississippi and Jackson State University. 

Though Delta State University does not have an on-campus voting location, there is a precinct across the street.

On Election Day, TyMon said he and other student leaders plan to canvass the dorms and ask students if they want to join a “stroll to the polls” event, which will involve a short walk to the on-campus precinct. 

“It’s a little bit of a walk from where students live,” TyMon said, adding that in previous years, “we would meet up and all walk together.” 

Mississippi’s absentee ballot process, which experts describe as onerous, may be another reason college students register to vote in-person in greater numbers. 

“It is an unbelievable barrier for college students who don’t live in Mississippi or are voting absentee in Mississippi,” McAndrews said. 

First, a voter must request an absentee ballot application from their circuit clerk’s office, according to a step-by-step guide from the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office. Once they receive the application in the mail, the voter must have it witnessed by a notary, unless they are disabled. When a voter gets a ballot, the next step is finding another notary to watch the voter fill it out.

“You can do your taxes in one day,” Adams said. In Mississippi, “you cannot vote by mail in one day.” 

Even some notaries think Mississippi’s absentee ballot law could be eased. 

Bill Anderson, the vice president of government affairs at the National Notary Association, said that, of the handful of states that involve notaries in the process, Mississippi’s law is the strictest. 

“You’d expect us to be supportive of states that allow or create a role for notaries in absentee ballots,” Anderson said. “We think this is a good idea. … These states, including Mississippi, want there to be a layer of security that is absent for voters voting absentee.” 

Nonetheless, Anderson said he is hoping to work with Mississippi lawmakers next year on some issues he sees with what he called the “non-notarial functions” required by the state’s law. 

For instance, Mississippi’s law requires notaries to sign the back of the envelope containing the voters’ ballot, something Anderson said is not expressly permitted by the notary laws of his home state in California. And Mississippi doesn’t oblige notaries to affix their seal to the envelope, which Anderson said other states require notaries to do. 

“You can just imagine the poor voter,” Anderson said. “They’re out here, and the California notary is trying to find their state law and doesn’t want to get in trouble with the Secretary of State of California and says look … I’d love to do this for you, but I can’t.” 

For his part, Pendes said he thinks students who want to vote absentee are motivated to find notaries, which can be relatively easy to do on a college campus. 

“In my experience, people usually aren’t defeated by the notarization part,” he said. 

At Mississippi State, the student government association and the Division of Student Affairs held an event called “Notary Day” last week. More than 70 students had their absentee ballots notarized, said Carson McFatridge, the student association president. 

“When I think of a notary, I think of someone at the bank,” she said. “That can be a challenge just not knowing who has the capability to do that … so it was really, really cool to be able to see people like our dean of students volunteer an hour of his time to sit out there and help people.” 

McAndrew said it’s important for colleges to make voting as a student as simple as possible, because even the perception that voting is complicated is itself a barrier.

“There’s so much out there about strict voter ID laws, it becomes this ghost barrier on top of the actual barrier,” McAndrew said. 

“Anything we can do not only to reduce the complexity but to reduce the intimidation and anxiety factor is really important,” she added. 

To that end, many professors have canceled classes to give students the day off to vote, and universities across the state are offering rides to the polls. At Ole Miss, buses will leave from the Walk of Champions and behind Ole Miss Bike Shop from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day. 

This does more than help students without cars, Pendes said. 

“The other thing to consider is that parking spaces on our campus are extremely hard to come by,” he said. “Do you want to move your car and lose your parking space to try to go vote? Because that isn’t necessarily something that’s always guaranteed to you, especially in commuter spaces.” 

This semester, the Center for Community Engagement was also successful in finding a solution to an issue that has troubled student voters for years at Ole Miss, which is that residence halls and Greek Life houses are not considered acceptable mailing addresses at which to register. 

Teer, the program director, said he worked with the Lafayette County Circuit Clerk’s office to establish the center as a mailing address for students who live on campus. 

“We’ve had students coming in daily because they’ve received an email from us that their voter information cards had arrived,” Teer said. 

Every Thursday, students at Alcorn State held a voter registration event at the campus chapel. TyMon also helped organize a voter registration block party that featured food trucks. These efforts resulted in more than 400 students registering to vote. 

TyMon said he thinks student leaders have an important role to play in setting an example for their peers. 

“When they see that we’re serious, they get serious,” he said.

That’s why A’Davion Bush, a sophomore political science major at Ole Miss, is going to drive home to Indianola not just to vote, but to volunteer at the polls. The Mississippi Votes’ Democracy in Action fellow said he’s going to post about his plan on social media so his friends who are still in high school will be inspired to vote when they turn 18.  

“The older population is not doing anything to influence young people in my county,” he said. 

McFatridge, the student body president at Mississippi State, said she recently registered a student to vote who had just become a U.S. citizen, which reminded her that while voting is a right, it’s also a privilege not had by everyone around the world.

Not voting in the U.S. is “kind of like looking a gift horse in the mouth,” McFatridge said. 

“It’s a silly phrase,” she added, “but I truly believe that when given the opportunity to share your own thoughts and beliefs, I don’t know why you wouldn’t.” 

An Arkansan, McFatridge had intended to vote early in her hometown of Searcy during fall break, but a family emergency prevented that. 

It’s too late for her to order an absentee ballot, so now she’s driving home to vote before Election Day, 4.5 hours away.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Oct. 30, 1870

Three Black men challenged the racist system of segregation in Louisville, Kentucky. They paid their fares and sat up front on a trolley — only to be challenged by the driver and a white passenger. 

Robert Fox, an elderly mortician, said he and his business partners had the same right to ride as whites. The driver alerted his central office, and soon a group of white drivers dragged them off the trolley, kicking them and shouting racial slurs. Police arrested the trio, whose lawyer argued that their disorderly conduct arrests had taken place because of their race. 

“They are good citizens,” their lawyer said, “and they ask for simple justice and nothing more.” 

The judge fined the trio $5, and Black passengers boycotted the trolley. Fox sued the Central Passenger Railroad Company, which ruled in his favor and awarded him $15. Inspired by the victory, Black passengers began staging “ride-ins” across the city. The protests led to clashes on the city streets, and Louisville’s mayor intervened. Streetcar companies agreed to desegregate the trolleys, and the Black citizens rejoiced. They had really won.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Many state lawmakers want to take action on teen mental health and say they believe restricting cellphone use in schools is a solution. But opinions and research on the topic are mixed.

Among those who oppose a full ban: Two high school students from opposite ends of the state.

Kate Riddle, a senior from Lafayette County School District, told Mississippi Today that her social media experience has always been “positive and uplifting.” 

“Social media can be a positive or negative tool; it just depends on how you use it,” she said. 

Riddle said she uses it for communication, news and entertainment. 

Crosby Parker, a junior from the Gulfport School District, also said social media hasn’t had a “tangible impact” on his mental health and that he uses it on a “need-to basis” to talk to friends.

Neither supports a full cellphone ban. But Riddle acknowledged that “phones are an immense problem in school districts and finding a way to navigate the challenges that they will bring in the coming years is vital to the success of all,” 

Riddle supports a phone ban for elementary school students, but not necessarily for older students. She suggested schools restrict cellphone use without banning phones entirely, such as taking them up before class. 

Parker supports his school’s current policy, where students can use their phones anywhere except during class. 

“This allows students to stay in communication with their family throughout the day, and it limits the phones to any time that doesn’t distract others from learning,” he said.

Earlier this month, the state youth mental health task force released their recommendations. Among them was that all school districts implement policies on cellphones and social media use in classrooms. 

At the same time, Rep. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, a task force member, is drafting a bill to ban cellphones in schools statewide with possibly leaving it up to each of the state’s 144 school districts to determine how to do that.. 

“As we recognize the importance of technology, we also have to recognize the importance of our children’s health, which includes mental health,” he said.

Cellphones are ubiquitous in American culture. Pew Research Center found that 95% of American teenagers between 13 and 17 have a smartphone and 23% reported using social media for four or more hours a day. 

Many educators, parents and researchers fear phones are driving the nation’s youth mental health crisis with 72% of high school teachers telling the Pew Research Center in June that they think cellphones are a major problem in classrooms.

Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” describes how teen mental health has declined sharply since 2010. In 2020, teen suicide rates increased 91% for boys and 167% for girls. The percent of teens who reported having at least one episode of major depression increased 145% for girls and 161% for boys. Haidt and many other researchers attribute this decline to the rise of social media and cellphone use. 

Last year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released a report warning about how social media harms teen mental health, citing statistics that 46% of teens said social media makes them feel worse about their body image and 64% said they were “often” or “sometimes” exposed to hate content. 

Creekmore said Haidt’s book and the surgeon general’s report are major influences for his bill.

According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 68% of American adults support banning cellphones from middle and high school classrooms. Eight states have passed bans and/or restrictions on cellphones in schools so far. 

In Mississippi this year, Marshall County School District and Greenwood School District introduced bans on cellphone use during school hours. 

“Vast research connects the decline in mental health among children and adolescents in part to the near constant use of smartphones and social media,” Lt Gov Delbert Hosemann said in a statement to Mississippi Today. 

Touching on the concerns about school safety in the wake of multiple school shootings, he said, “School safety and ensuring parents can stay connected with their children are also important concerns. We are confident local districts can negotiate these competing concerns and implement policies protecting instructional time from distraction.”

Cellphone bans have their drawbacks. They can be difficult to enforce, and some parents want to be able to reach their children for pick-ups and emergencies. However, the National School Safety and Security Services says that using a phone during an emergency can actually cause more trouble by distracting people, overloading cellphone systems, disrupting evacuation efforts and more.

The research on cellphone use and its impact on teens is more mixed. There are several places where the research is lacking, including what types of content cause the most harm and how exactly social media creates/exacerbates mental health problems.

The National Academy of Sciences‘ report on the topic pointed out the positives to using social media, such as communication, learning and connection. The surgeon general’s report also found that 58% of teens said that social media made them feel more accepted. 

Lynda Stewart, a mental health counselor and director of the Division of Children and Youth Services at Mississippi’s Department of Mental Health, is also part of the state task force. While she said she has no opinion on cellphone bans, she pointed out that they’re not the only factors harming youth mental health.

“Adolescence is a very, very difficult time. It’s a time when children are growing and changing,” she said. 

Stewart cited the pandemic and academic and social pressures as major problems. Young people are also more aware about mental health and are less afraid to reach out for help than previous generations.

“One thing we know about our youth today is that they’re strong and they’re brave,” she said, “and they’re more willing than any other generation of youth to let somebody know when they’re not okay.” 

The task force made several recommendations, including more schools partnering with community health centers, more mental health professionals on school staff and universal mental health screenings for students.

Stewart advised parents to check in with their kids daily and look out for behavioral red flags. This includes them always being alone, dropping hobbies they used to love, getting bad grades, and drastic changes in their style and friend groups.
Mental Health Mississippi provides information on mental health providers in the state. For mental health crises, dial the national suicide and crisis line at 988. You can also dial the DMH helpline at 1-877-210-8513 for help and information about mental health services.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.