Northsider Pete Perry is headed to the United States Supreme Court. That’s a big deal.
Pete Perry is one of two individual plaintiffs named in a legal issue involving how election rules are set. The lawsuit pits the Republican Party of Mississippi against the State of Mississippi. The issue is whether mail in ballots have to be received by the constitutionally mandated election date or whether they can be postmarked by that date and physically arrive days later.
Or to put more exactly, quoting the petition for writ of certiorari:
Question Presented
The federal election-day statutes—2 U.S.C. § 7, 2 U.S.C. § 1, and 3 U.S.C. § 1—set the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in certain years as the “election” day for federal offices. Like all other States, Mississippi requires that ballots for federal offices be cast—marked and submitted to election officials—by that day. And like most other States, Mississippi allows some of those timely cast ballots (mail-in absentee ballots, in Mississippi’s case) to be counted if they are received by election officials a short time after election day (in Mississippi, within 5 business days after election day). Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15637(1)(a). In the decision below, the Fifth Circuit held that the federal election-day statutes require that ballots be both cast by voters and received by election officials by election day and thus preempt Mississippi’s law. The question presented is whether the federal election-day statutes preempt a state law that allows ballots that are cast by federal election day to be received by election officials after that day.
Many Northsiders know Pete Perry, a long-time Belhaven resident and his son Jim, a financial superstar who chose to return to Jackson as the basis of his work. Their commitment and love of Mississippi is an example of the personal loyalty that makes our state so uniquely wonderful.
Pete is also a member of Jackson’s 1% Special Infrastructure Tax board which is now doing most of the repaving and pothole filling in Jackson.
Anyone interested in Mississippi politics, particularly Republican politics, knows Pete Perry. In fact, he’s downright legendary. He knows politics inside and out and if human blood were yellow, he would bleed Republican red.
Pete is also a member of the Rotary Club of North Jackson, as am I. After the luncheon meeting Pete, columnist Bill Crawford, Northsider Jeff Adcock and I stick around and talk about current local events and politics.
These discussions are not only entertaining but are immensely useful as a journalist, giving me all sort of types on story ideas.
This is one thing I love about local journalism: the opportunity, indeed the necessity, of knowing, befriending and connecting with local contacts, friends and influencers. It’s a blast.
Local newspapers are beleaguered, under assault by Big Tech scraping our intellectual property off our websites and repackaging it for free use. The new PR campaign for the News/Media Alliance is “Theft Is Not Innovation.” My wife says I’m the last man standing.
One reason we may be still standing is that Emmerich Newspapers has deliberately concentrated on ensuring our reporters, editors and publishers forge deep ties to their local communities. We don’t move people around willy nilly. Instead, we seek to root our people deep into the heart of their communities.
This also means not burning our sources and playing “gotcha” journalism. Our editors and writers live in the communities we cover. We see these folks in the grocery stores, on the streets and at local community events. We want to be fair, accurate and reasonable. That’s one reason we’re still around when thousands of local news outlets have shut down.
So, when Pete and the others shoot the breeze after Rotary, they don’t worry that I’m going to use that informal conversation and put him in hot water. He knows I’m a responsible publisher and a friend.
This is true with the literally hundreds of sources in my circle, most of whom I would consider friends. I practice what I preach. I love community journalism. It’s what I was born to do, and I strive to do it right.
Pete knows more about Mississippi election rules than just about anyone I know except maybe another great friend Jeff Weill, former Jackson city councilman and Hinds County circuit judge. Jeff is now one of the main judges sent around the state by the state Supreme Court to settle election disputes.
Listening to Pete talk about all the new changes in mail in voting and expanded absentee ballots gave me pause. I always viewed these changes as good, making voting easier and consumer friendly.
Pete, having spent decades in the gnarly world of electoral politics, sees the danger in this increased ease. More chances to rig the voting and cheat. For instance, it’s a lot easier to monitor voting when it’s in one place on one day. When it happens, in various county offices over two weeks, it’s much harder to police.
