---
type: "Bill"
title: "In-person absentee voting; require use of OMR equipment and establish security measures and procedure to challenge."
description: "In-person absentee voting; require use of OMR equipment and establish security measures and procedure to challenge."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ms"
legislature: "Mississippi Legislature"
session: "2026"
identifier: "HB 859"
citation: "Mississippi HB 859 (2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Accountability", "Efficiency", "Transparency", "Apportionment and Elections", "Elections"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Sanford"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 13
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2026-01-16T06:00:00+00:00"
last_action: "2026-03-19T05:00:00+00:00"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/6727dea8-79a8-43d5-aa3e-755de376a090"
source_url: "http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2026/pdf/House_authors/Sanford.xml"
source_hash: "5ad340fc626dcd7355eb85fbc0c9335a0209a7c83a3e91db76b11ee6e1ce08da"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ms"]
---

# Mississippi HB 859 (2026) — In-person absentee voting; require use of OMR equipment and establish security measures and procedure to challenge.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **As Introduced** (filed) — [source](http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2026/html/HB/0800-0899/HB0859IN.htm)
2. **Amendment No 1 (Adopted) (Voice Vote)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2026/pdf/ham/HB0859_H_Amend_01.pdf)
3. **Amendment No 2 (Adopted) (Voice Vote)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2026/pdf/ham/HB0859_H_Amend_02.pdf)
4. **As Passed the lower** (committee substitute) — [source](http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2026/html/HB/0800-0899/HB0859PS.htm)
5. **Current version** (committee substitute) — [source](http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2026/html/HB/0800-0899/HB0859SG.htm)

## Votes

- Passage as Amended — **119–1** (pass) · lower
- Passage — **51–1** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Sanford — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2026-01-16T06:00:00+00:00** Referred To Apportionment and Elections `referral-committee`
- **2026-01-29T06:00:00+00:00** Title Suff Do Pass `committee-passage`
- **2026-02-10T06:00:00+00:00** Amended `amendment-passage`
- **2026-02-10T06:00:00+00:00** Passed As Amended `passage`
- **2026-02-12T06:00:00+00:00** Transmitted To Senate `introduction`
- **2026-02-17T06:00:00+00:00** Referred To Elections;Accountability, Efficiency, Transparency `referral-committee`
- **2026-02-26T06:00:00+00:00** DR - TSDP: EL To AC
- **2026-03-03T06:00:00+00:00** Title Suff Do Pass `committee-passage`
- **2026-03-10T05:00:00+00:00** Passed `passage`
- **2026-03-11T05:00:00+00:00** Returned For Enrolling
- **2026-03-12T05:00:00+00:00** Enrolled Bill Signed
- **2026-03-12T05:00:00+00:00** Enrolled Bill Signed
- **2026-03-19T05:00:00+00:00** Approved by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/6727dea8-79a8-43d5-aa3e-755de376a090`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Mississippi legislature records).