"There is heavy activity and I think it will pick up during the summer months," Hosemann said.
Voter ID was almost passed into law by the Legislature earlier this year, but the bill was defeated in the Senate Elections Committee. Hosemann called the defeat of House Bill 1533 "very strange."
"That was a big thing in state government, that these four committee members overrode the chairman," he said.
If the voter ID initiative were to appear on the 2010 ballot and be approved by voters, Hosemann said it would become the first initiative-based amendment to Mississippi's 119-year-old constitution. He said the previous 26 attempts have failed.
"It's a chance for the citizens to rise up and make a decision without the Legislature," Hosemann said. "Now, because we didn't (pass voter ID in the Legislautre), we've got to go through the initiative process. It takes a good bit of work."
The 90,000 signatures necessary for the initiative must come from the state's previous five congressional districts. Currently, there are four districts in the state.
Voter ID is a needed election reform in the state, Hosemann said. He pointed to the Macon elections three weeks ago, where 42 percent of the vote was made via absentee ballot - an unusually high number of absentee voters. Hosemann said his office would issue a report on Macon's and other cities' irregularities during the May 5 elections in two weeks.
But Macon isn't the only source of voting irregularities, Hosemann said. He said 29 of the state's 82 counties have "more people registered to vote than there are breathing in them." Though having an overblown voter roll is not itself a violation, it can lead to easier voter fraud.
"It's going on," he said of voter fraud. "What's so important to remember is that when someone votes irregular like that, it's the same as your vote. Your ballot is then negated by somebody cheating."
While fielding questions from Boys State participants, Hosemann also shared his views on a number of other topics.
Hosemann declared he would not run for governor in 2011, saying he would not devote attention away from his current duties in order to run a campaign.
When asked about term limits, Hosemann said he didn't think supporters could muster the momentum to pass term limit laws in Mississippi, adding the state has been served well in the past by repeating candidates.
Sometimes, however, Hosemann gets frustrated with longtime office holders.
"There are times I wish we had term limits in the Legislature because there's stuff getting blocked over and over that I'm trying
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