Voting Leave Requirements in Mississippi

At a glance

Mississippi has no time-off-to-vote law

Mississippi does not require an employer to release an employee to vote. There is no set number of hours, no paid-time rule, no outside-work-hours test, and no employee-notice or employer-posting requirement, because no affirmative voting-leave statute exists. The chip table reads "N/A" across those columns for that reason.

In practice, a Mississippi employee who needs to vote uses the state's polling hours on election day, an absentee ballot if eligible, or time arranged with the employer. Whether the employer grants time to vote, and whether it is paid, is a matter of company policy or contract, not a state mandate.

What the election code regulates: employer coercion

Mississippi's election code does regulate the employer relationship, but the subject is coercion, not scheduling. Under § 23-15-871(1), no employer may direct or coerce an employee to vote or not vote a certain way, discharge or threaten to discharge the employee, or raise or cut the employee's wages, because of how the employee voted or did not vote. Section 23-15-871(2) adds that an employer may not circulate statements calculated to intimidate or influence an employee's vote.

This protects an employee from being pressured or punished over voting. It is not a right to leave work to vote, and it sets no paid-time or notice rule.

The "necessary time to cast his or her vote" clause

The one place the statute mentions voting time is easy to misread. Section 23-15-871(3) prohibits an employer from giving an employee paid leave to work on an election campaign, then carves out an exception: an employee may not be allowed employer-paid "vacation or leave of absence" for campaign activity, "except the necessary time to cast his or her vote."

Read in context, that clause is an exception to a ban, not a command. It means the law's prohibition on employer-funded political leave does not reach the short time an employee needs to vote — so an employer is free to allow voting time without it counting as unlawful campaign support. It does not, by its terms, require the employer to provide that time. Treating this exception as a guaranteed right to paid time off overstates what the section says.

What trips people up

Some employer guides and news summaries describe Mississippi as having a voting-time requirement, pointing to the "necessary time to cast his or her vote" language. That language sits inside a rule about employer-funded campaign leave and grants no affirmative time off. Mississippi is consistently listed among the states with no voting-leave mandate.

The real workplace protection is the anti-coercion rule. If an employer threatens your job or pay over how you vote, that is what § 23-15-871 forbids, and a violation is prosecuted as an election offense under § 97-13-37, referred to a district attorney.

Common questions

Does my Mississippi employer have to give me time off to vote?

No. No Mississippi statute requires time off to vote, paid or unpaid. Voting around your shift, absentee voting, or an arrangement with your employer are the practical options.

What does § 23-15-871 actually protect?

It bars an employer from coercing your vote and from discharging you, threatening to discharge you, or changing your wages because of how you vote.

Isn't there language about "time to cast his or her vote"?

Yes, but it is an exception to a ban on employer-paid campaign leave, not a requirement that the employer give you voting time.

What happens if an employer coerces an employee's vote?

A violation of § 23-15-871 is a violation of § 97-13-37 and is referred to a district attorney for prosecution.

Statutes and sources

• Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-871 (as amended by Laws 2017, ch. 441, § 180): employer may not coerce an employee's vote, threaten discharge, or change wages because of it; bars employer-paid campaign leave "except the necessary time to cast his or her vote"; a violation is referred to a district attorney under § 97-13-37 — official enrolled act (accessed July 13, 2026).