Federal judge strikes down Mississippi law that limited who can help mail-in voters – National & International News – FRI 28Jul2023

Court blocks Mississippi law limiting who can help mail-in voters.

Alabama woman charged in kidnapping hoax.

Russian mercenary leader Prigozhin surfaces after Niger Coup – or does he?

NATIONAL NEWS

Federal judge strikes down Mississippi law limiting who can help mail-in voters

Federal District Judge Henry Wingate has struck down a law passed in Mississippi earlier this year, known as Senate Bill 2358. Under this law, only election officials, postal workers, household members or caregivers could assist a person in submitting mail-in ballots. Judge Wingate ruled that SB 2358 violates federal laws that allow voters to choose who they want to assist them. The ruling applies to voting in November this year as well as voting for the August primaries, already in progress. Anyone can now assist a Mississippi mail-in voter without fear of prosecution.

According to Gov. Reeves, SB 2358 was meant to tackle “ballot harvesting”, a practice in which community organizations (including those affiliated with a candidate, party, or political interest group) collects and submits mail-in ballots for others. In Mississippi’s case, Judge Wingate determined SB 2358 was a solution in search of a problem. Wingate said Mississippi election officials were “unable to provide any data illustrating whether Mississippi has a widespread ballot harvesting problem. Seemingly, no fact-findings or committee-finding investigations or legislative committee inquiries have focused upon this perceived threat”. 

Mississippi is just one of many Republican-led states that has passed laws in the last several years seeking to limit how mail ballots can be used and who can use them. Since 2020, when former President Trump declared war on mail-in ballots or other forms of absentee voting “ballot harvesting” has become a bogeyman of choice for Republicans. Republicans claim the practice is ripe for fraud. However, before 2020, Republicans were far more active and successful in using ballot-harvesting as an election strategy than Democrats, and some in the party want to revive the practice.

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Alabama woman charged in kidnapping hoax

Alabama nursing student Carlee Russell, 25, has been charged with two misdemeanors after she admitted that her claim of having been kidnapped was a hoax. Russell faces charges of false reporting to law enforcement authorities and falsely reporting an incident. Each of these crimes has a $1000 bond and a conviction on either charge can result in a $6000 fine and up to a year in jail.

Russell’s story gained nationwide attention after the went missing after calling 911 to report seeing a toddler wandering alone on the side of an interstate. Russell surfaced days later and claimed a man in an 18-wheeler had forced her into his truck. She then claimed the man took her to a house where he and a woman held her captive for two days. 

While she was “missing”, Russell’s story and photo circulated widely. “Her decisions that night created panic and alarm for the citizens of our city and even across the nation as concern grew that a kidnapper was on the loose using a small child as bait,” Hoover, AL, Police Chief Nick Derzis said. “The story opened wounds for families whose loved ones really were victims of kidnappings, some of which even helped organize searches.”

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Russian mercenary leader Prigozhin surfaces after Niger Coup – or does he?

In the West African country of Niger on Wednesday, presidential guards seized the country’s elected President Mohamed Bazoum. Today, the Gen. Omar Tchiani, who commanded the presidential guard, declared himself Niger’s rightful leader. Most of the international community were quick to condemn Tchiani’s actions and to label Bazoum’s overthrow a coup, although Washington is strangely hedging its stance on the change in power.

Niger is one of the world’s poorest nations and, like all post-colonial African states, its grasp on democracy is tenuous at the best of times. Bazoum was Niger’s first elected leader to succeed another since Niger won independence from France in 1960. However, there are over 1000 US troops permanently stationed there, and Niger has until now been a key US ally in combatting Islamic militantism in the Sahel.

“Prigozhin” enters the frame

Interestingly, one of the few voices outside of Niger who has lent full-throated support the new regime is, or purports to be, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Prigozhin is a former close ally of Vladimir Putin and leader of the Wagner mercenary group. At the end of June this year, he led a short-lived mutiny of his own. Rather than facing any official consequences, Putin allowed Prigozhin to retire to Belarus in exile.

Despite this “exile”, official sources in Russia have reported that Prigozhin was present at a Kremlin meeting with Putin just days after the mutiny. But some Western Kremlin-watchers believe that this meeting never happened and that Prigozhin is in fact either dead or in prison.

Since that meeting, a poorly-lit and unfocused video claimed to show Prigozhin welcoming some of his troops to Belarus and telling them to prepare to deploy to Africa. More recently, a still photo circulated showing Prigozhin apparently attending a Russia-Africa summit going on right now in St. Petersburg.

The press have been unable to confirm Prigozhin’s whereabouts at any of these times and places and have been hesitant to authenticate any footage, images or statements from Prigozhin since the June uprising.

Nevertheless, a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel shared a recording today that appeared to be in Prigozhin’s voice praising the Niger coup. The voice says, “What happened in Niger is nothing other than the struggle of the people of Niger with their colonizers”. It’s not clear whether Wagner troops took part in the Niger coup, but they do have a large presence in Africa, particularly the Central African Republic.

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