Mississippi Advisory Opinions August 19, 2005: AGO 000016731 (August 19, 2005)

AGO 000016731.

Dear Mr. Jones:

Attorney General Jim Hood has received your letter of request and assigned it to me for research and reply. Your letter states in part:

My name is Robert "Bob" Jones, Election Commissioner District Two, Washington County. I have a situation that requires an opinion from the Attorney General's Office and your advice on how to handle a problem of responsibility that we have here.

Will you review the following questions and advise me of any responsibility to update "City of Greenville" Re-District Ward Lines and Street Index Ranges in the "Washington County" Voter Registration Data Base. It is my understanding that a county election commissioner is to have separate responsibilities to purge county voter rolls, train county poll workers, and conduct general and special elections provided by law. Our commission has completed county re-district work mandated after the 2000 Census and Justice Department approval. Our county rolls are ready for the cut over to MEMS in mid-August.

Now to the situation at hand - The City of Greenville, City Election Commissioners, and Mr. Tommy Jefcoat, City Clerk met with Jan Brown, Circuit Clerk and our Election Commissioners in April of this year to start a process to upgrade the information we have in the Washington County Data Base. Particularly to establish "City" Ward Designations and new "City" Street Ranges to conform with the "City's" Re-District Worksheet (see attached). Currently the only information we have for the City is Polling Locations that may or may not be current, as no changes in polling locations for the "City" of Greenville have been made in the past four years. Voter registration cards are mailed regularly from the circuit clerk's office to new voters with incorrect polling locations on the card "in some cases" for the city voters. The "City" of Greenville wants to correct this and add ward designations in the "county" data base.

I understand there is "no statute" to authorize this work to be done by a "county" election commissioner or to provide for compensation to make these changes for the "City" of Greenville.

Question 1: What authority does a "County" Election Commissioner have to add "City" re-district changes to the "County" data base?

Question 2: Who will be responsible for the compensation to complete the work? City or County?

Question 3: Does the Washington County Board of Supervisors have any responsibility to update our voter registration data to include "City" ward designations and new street index ranges for each city in the county? (Leland, Arcola, Hollandale, Metcalfe)

Pursuant to Mississippi Code Annotated Section 23-15-153 (Supp. 2004) county election commissions are required to meet and revise the registration records and poll books. There is no requirement that the county election commission add municipal ward designations and/or street ranges.

We have previously said that the redistricting process at the county level is the responsibility of the county board of supervisors and that Section 23-15-153 does not appear to contemplate that county election commissioners perform the work necessitated by redistricting as a part of their regular duties. We further expressed our opinion that individual commissioners may be employed on a part-time basis by the board of supervisors to perform redistricting tasks provided the board determines, consistent with the facts, that 1) the work involved is not required to be performed by the registrar or deputy registrar; and 2) the work is over and above the regular statutory duties of the election commissioners. MS AG Op. Martin (May 31, 2002).

The redistricting process at the municipal level is the responsibility of the municipal governing authorities. The work necessitated by municipal redistricting is not, in our opinion, a part of the regular duties of the municipal election commissioners.

Therefore, we are of the opinion that the municipal governing authorities may employ and compensate individual county election commissioners or they may employ and compensate individual municipal election commissioners to perform such work. Any such compensation for municipal election commissioners would be over and above the amount the municipality normally pays them.

In discussing this matter with the State Ethics Commission, it is our understanding that they consider that both county and municipal election commissions operate as separate entities from the county or municipality they serve and that county and municipal commissioners may be employed in the above described manner pursuant to Section 25-4-105 (4)(h). You may wish to contact the Ethics Commission directly to insure that no ethics violations occur.

Sincerely,

JIM HOOD, ATTORNEY GENERAL

By:

Phil Carter Special Assistant Attorney General