British jurist William Blackstone is cited with establishing the principle dating back to the 1700s that it is better for 10 guilty people to go free than one innocent person be incarcerated.
That principle continues to be cited and debated. The debate even questions what would be the appropriate number of guilty people going free opposed to one innocent person suffering a conviction and punishment.
A version of that principle also is at the center of a national debate about voting.
Some politicians, led by Republican President Donald Trump, and backed by Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, contend that the federal Congress should impose national voting standards that would reduce the chances of election fraud.
Other politicians, primarily Democrats, say instances of voting fraud are rare, and studies seem to support that argument, while changes proposed by Trump could make it difficult for eligible voters to cast a ballot.
Hence, the argument seems to be whether preventing what appears to be a few instances of voter fraud is more important than election access. How many people should be denied or hindered in their right to vote to prevent rare occurrences of voter fraud?
Mississippi politicians have a long – and sometimes sordid – history of siding with the argument that preventing voter fraud is more important than ensuring easy voter access.
Even today, it is more difficult to vote by mail in Mississippi than in any state in the nation. In many cases, people voting by mail must have their signature notarized at two steps in the process.
Other states have found what appears to be a more efficient and user friendly way to vote by mail while still ensuring voter security.
In many states, for instance, people voting by mail must provide the last four digits of their Social Security number or a state-issued voter identification number on the ballot. In other states, ballots received in the mail undergo an intense signature verification process, and importantly, normally there are election observers from the political parties who can challenge the ballots.
For decades, Republicans in Mississippi sought a voter identification requirement. Democrats, particularly Black Democrats, tried to block the efforts, arguing older African Americans who were denied the right to vote, would view a voter identification requirement as a return to the old days of Jim Crow.
Republicans in the Mississippi Legislature were offered a compromise that elderly voters – born before a certain date – would be exempt from having an identification to vote. Even though that provision ultimately would have led to a time when all people would have had to show an ID to vote, Republicans rejected the proposal and instead placed on the ballot a citizen-sponsored initiative requiring people to have a government-issued photo identification to vote.
That measure overwhelmingly passed in 2011.
Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann presides over the Senate in a special legislative session at the Capitol in Jackson on Wednesday, July 15, 2026. Credit: Richard Lake/Mississippi TodayDespite the argument that a requirement of a government-issued photo ID would restrict election access, it could be argued this was an instance when Mississippi politicians made efforts to ensure people were not denied their rights.
Then Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, who now serves as lieutenant governor, was charged with enacting the new voting requirement. To his credit, Hosemann took his job seriously and developed a plan to ensure all Mississippians had relatively easy access to a government ID and ensured multiple types of identification could be presented to vote.
For instance, it was determined that in Mississippi a student identification could be presented to vote. Texas, on the other hand, prevents student IDs from being used to vote, but allows gun licenses to be used.
The Texas law faced legal challenges. Hosemann likes to brag that the Mississippi law was not even challenged in court.
President Trump wants to greatly limit voting by mail while requiring an identification to vote.
The fact of the matter is that most states – 36 – require an identification to vote. And even the president’s home state of Florida allows voting by mail – a process he often takes advantage of by voting by mail while he rails against it
So, perhaps the question is whether voter security is more important than ballot access for some people but not for others?
That like, Blackstone’s original premise, is an age-old debate.
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