Mississippi Code
Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-753 (2026)
Penalties for vote fraud
✓ current as of July 2026
- (1) Any person who willfully, unlawfully and feloniously procures, seeks to procure, or seeks to influence the vote of any person voting by absentee ballot, by the payment of money, the promise of payment of money, or by the delivery of any other item of value or promise to give the voter any item of value, or by promising or giving the voter any favor or reward in an effort to influence his vote, or any person who aids, abets, assists, encourages, helps, or causes any person voting an absentee ballot to violate any provision of law pertaining to absentee voting, or any person who sells his vote for money, favor, or reward, has been paid or promised money, a reward, a favor or favors, or any other item of value, or any person who fraudulently requests or submits an absentee ballot application for any voter, or any person who shall willfully swear falsely to any affidavit provided for in Sections 23-15-621 through 23-15-735, shall be guilty of the crime of "vote fraud" and, upon conviction, shall be sentenced to pay a fine of not less than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) nor more than Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), or by imprisonment in the county jail for no more than one (1) year, or by both fine and imprisonment, or by being sentenced to the State Penitentiary for not less than one (1) year nor more than five (5) years.
- (2) It shall be unlawful for any person who pays or compensates another person for assisting voters in marking their absentee ballots to base the pay or compensation on the number of absentee voters assisted or the number of absentee ballots cast by persons who have received the assistance. Any person who violates this section, upon conviction, shall be fined not less than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) nor more than Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), or imprisoned in the Penitentiary not less than one (1) year nor more than five (5) years, or both.
Derived from 1972 Code § 23-9-703 [Codes, 1942, § 3203-602; Laws, 1972, ch. 490, § 602; repealed by Laws, 1986, ch. 495, § 344]; Laws, 1986, ch. 495, § 238; Laws, 1993, ch. 528, § 16; Laws, 1999, ch. 420, § 6, eff. 6/17/1999 (the date the United States Attorney General interposed no objection under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965).
Amended by Laws, 2023, ch. 444, HB 1306,§ 4, eff. 1/1/2024.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 4
cases, 1990–2012 · leading case: Hood v. Dept. of Wildlife Conservation, 571 So. 2d 263 (Miss. 1990).
Hood v. Dept. of Wildlife Conservation, 571 So. 2d 263 (Miss. 1990). “Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-753 (Supp. 1988).”
McFarland v. State, 707 So. 2d 166 (Miss. 1998). “Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-753 (Supp. 1996) provides that "any person who shall willfully swear falsely to any affidavit provided for in Sections 23-15-621 through XX-XX-XXX, shall be guilty of the crime of `vote fraud.”
Sowers v. State, 101 So. 3d 1156 (Miss. 2012). “See Miss.Code Ann § 23-15-753 (Rev.2007). Sowers contends that only a handwriting expert can provide competent evidence that the person charged did, *1159 in fact, sign the instrument.”
Calvin McFarland v. State of Mississippi (Miss. 1993). “Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-753 (Supp. 1996) provides that "any person who shall willfully swear falsely to any affidavit provided for in Sections 23-15-621 through 23-15-735, shall be guilty of the crime of 'vote fraud.”
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