Republican candidates for the secretary of state's office overwhelmingly support voter identification, a group of Hattiesburg area residents learned during a debate Wednesday.

 

Delbert Hosemann of Jackson, a lawyer and real estate developer who has been involved in congressional campaigns, and two-term state representative and former educator Mike Lott of Petal answered questions at the Forrest-Lamar Republican Women's Association monthly meeting.

 

Jeffrey Rupp, two-term mayor of Columbus, planned to attend but videotaped a short statement and sent a representative because of the death of a close family friend.

 

The fourth person listed as a candidate in the primary race is Gene Sills of Crystal Springs, who the association's president Betsy Rowell said could not be reached to attend the event. The winner of the Aug. 7 primary will go on to face the winner of the three-way Democratic primary.

 

Hosemann, Lott and Rupp said they supported voter reforms that include enacting a voter identification bill.

 

Critics have argued that if voters are required to have a driver's license or state-issued identification card, both of which must be purchased for a fee, it can be construed as a poll tax.

 

Lott and Hosemann generally agreed that some sort of photo ID that would be provided free to residents who do not already have a driver's license would be the best way to overcome constitutional challenges.

 

Lott spoke about how to limit non-U.S. citizens from taking part in the electoral process and having an open dialogue with county circuit clerks while Hosemann hit the high points of what he called an "entire voter reform act."

 

"For two years, I've been fighting hard against the issue of illegal immigration and that does bleed over into elections," Lott said. "As secretary of state, that's a big part of what has to be done now, and I'm not ashamed or afraid to do this."

 

Hosemann said his reforms would include, among other things, extensive pollworker training to help workers identify qualified voters, purging the voter rolls of residents who have died or moved, and moving department personnel to a new voter fraud investigation unit.

 

While the largest and most visible part of the secretary of state's office is geared toward elections, the office is also responsible for overseeing state securities regulations, licensing businesses and managing public lands.

 

Hosemann said that within the first 90 days in office, he would create an inventory of 16th Section and public land leaseholders and would begin to scrutinize those leases to determine how to generate the most revenue for public entities such as school districts.

 

"What you'll see as we go through the rest of the election is the complexity of the secretary of state's office," he said, noting that he would like to help craft comprehensive reforms to small business policy as well as deal with public lands issues.

 

Lott said that if elected he would see if other agencies might be better equipped to handle some of the tasks now handled by the secretary of state's office.

 

"It may not be possible to do that, but why do we need six assistant secretaries of state," he said. "My question is 'Is there something we can do to streamline that and make it easier for the taxpayers?'"

 

Lamar County voter Fay Davidson said she was impressed with the candidates' positions, especially regarding the voter identification issue.

 

"I like the voter ID and illegal immigration conversations," she said. "I think it is definitely a must that we address these issues."

 

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