Mississippi Advisory Opinions March 23, 2009: No. 2009-00121 (March 23, 2009)

No. 2009-00121.

Dear Mr. Begley:

Attorney General Hood has received your request for an official opinion on behalf of the Municipal Democratic Executive Committee for the City of Jackson and it has been assigned to me for research and reply.

Question Presented

May college students who are registered to vote and who claim their campus residence as their legal domicile for voting purposes legally cast absentee ballots during the period in which the dormitories are required to be vacated after the end of the spring semester?

Response

Yes.

Background

In your letter you have asked that this office reconsider MS AG Op., Dunn (March 8, 1985), which concluded that a college student required to vacate the dormitory because of a break in semesters did not meet the definition of an "absentee elector" under Miss. Code Ann. Section 23-9-603 (1972) (since repealed).

Applicable law

Miss. Code Ann. Section 23-15-713 (1972) reads as follows:

For the purpose of this subarticle, any duly qualified elector may vote as provided in this subarticle if he be one who falls within the following categories:

(a) Any qualified elector who is a bona fide student, teacher or administrator at any college, university, junior college, high, junior high, or elementary grade school whose studies or employment at such institution necessitates his absence from the county of his voting residence on the date of any primary, general or special election, or the spouse and dependents of said student, teacher or administrator if such spouse or dependent(s) maintain a common domicile, outside of the county of his voting residence, with such student, teacher or administrator.

(b) Any qualified elector who is required to be away from his place of residence on any election day due to his employment as an employee of a member of the Mississippi congressional delegation and the spouse and dependents of such person if he or she shall be residing with such absentee voter away from the county of the spouse's voting residence.

(c) Any qualified elector who is away from his county of residence on election day for any reason.

(d) Any person who has a temporary or permanent physical disability and who, because of such disability, is unable to vote in person without substantial hardship to himself or others, or whose attendance at the voting place could reasonably cause danger to himself or others.

(e) The parent, spouse or dependent of a person with a temporary or permanent physical disability who is hospitalized outside of his county of residence or more than fifty (50) miles distant from his residence, if the parent, spouse or dependent will be with such person on election day.

(f) Any person who is sixty-five (65) years of age or older.

(g) Any member of the Mississippi congressional delegation absent from Mississippi on election day, and the spouse and dependents of such member of the congressional delegation.

(h) Any qualified elector who will be unable to vote in person because he is required to be at work on election day during the times at which the polls will be open.

Analysis and Conclusion

Since the issuance of the Dunn opinion in 1985, the absentee balloting law has been recodified and has thereafter been amended several times to, among other things, expand the categories of voters eligible to cast absentee ballots. Due to these amendments, the statutory basis for the Dunn opinion no longer exists.

Based on current law it is our opinion that the category of "Any qualified elector who is away from his county of residence on election day" now authorizes students described in your letter who vacate their dormitory at the end of the spring semester and are temporarily outside the county on election day to vote by absentee ballot in the office of the appropriate voter registrar, or city clerk in the case of municipal elections.

Please let me know if you would like to discuss this matter or if I can be of further assistance.

Sincerely yours,

JIM HOOD, ATTORNEY GENERAL

By: Reese Partridge

Assistant Attorney General