Mississippi Advisory Opinions July 26, 1996: AGO 96-0463 (July 26, 1996)

Advisory Opinion Text

Hon. Estelle Pryor

Circuit Clerk, Washington County

Post Office Box 1276

Greenville, Mississippi 38702

Re: Election Commissioners

Dear Ms. Pryor:

Attorney General Mike Moore has received your letter of request and has assigned it to me for research and reply. You inquire:

May a county election commissioner qualify to be a candidate for another election commissioner office without resigning at the first of the year?

Pursuant to a telephone conversation, you informed me that an election commissioner had moved out of her district. She did not resign as election commissioner by the first of the year, but rather moved out of the district. She now plans to run for election commissioner in her new district.

Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-217(1) (Supp. 1995) states:

A commissioner of election of any county may be a candidate for any other office at any election held or to be held during the four-year term for which he has been elected to the office of commissioner of election or with reference to which he has acted as such; provided that he has resigned from the office of election commissioner before January 1 of the year in which he desires to seek the office. [Emphasis added.]

It is the opinion of this office that an election commissioner who moves out of her district, and thereby vacates that office, may run for election commissioner in another district regardless of whether she resigned as election commissioner in her former district prior to January 1. Moving from one district to another, and qualifying to run as election commissioner in that district still constitutes running for election commissioner, and not “any other office.” See §23-15-217(1), supra .

If this office can be of any further assistance, please let us know.

Very truly yours,

Mike Moore, Attorney General.

Sandra M. Shelson Special Assistant Attorney General.