Mississippi Advisory Opinions December 20, 1994: AGO 94-0845 (December 20, 1994)

Advisory Opinion Text

Honorable James Breland

Election Commissioner

Post Office Box 244

Neely, Mississippi 39461

Re: Redistricting and Absentee Ballots

Dear Mr. Breland:

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

“I have two questions for you to give me your opinion on.

Question No. 1: We are in the process of redistricting in Greene County. Under the law, the qualifying deadline is the first day of March. If a candidate that lives in district 5 or 1 is put in district 4 after he has qualified to run in district 5 or 1, what will be the outcome of this? The redistricting may occur after the deadline for qualifying.

Question No. 2: In mailing out absentee ballots, they are sometimes stapled to a card so that when the voter tears the ballot off the card or stub they do not send the stub back with the voted ballot. Can we count an absentee ballot if the stub is not returned with the punch card ballot? I cannot find anything in the voting laws that says you cannot count the ballot without the stub.”

In response to your first question please see the enclosed copy of an opinion addressed to Honorable Melba Ezell, dated January 16, 1991. In summary that opinion states that the proper election officials may administratively amend a candidate's qualifying papers to reflect a change brought on by the redistricting process.

In response to your second question the “punch card” system of voting which utilizes serially numbered stubs, described in your letter, was designed to prevent the same fraudulent activity that the ballot initialing process utilized in paper ballot elections was designed to prevent. See Allen v. Snowden, 441 So.2d 553 (Miss.1983) . Please see the enclosed copy of our opinion to Honorable Sue Sautermeister, dated August 7, 1991 wherein we concluded that absentee ballots are not subject to the initialing requirement. Based on the foregoing, we are of the opinion that the failure of an absentee voter to return the stub with the ballot does not invalidate the ballot. Therefore, absent some other fatal irregularity, it is our opinion that absentee ballots that are received without the serially numbered stub should be counted.

Sincerely,

Mike Moore, Attorney General.

Phil Carter, Assistant Attorney General