Mississippi Advisory Opinions May 24, 1979: 19790524 (May 24, 1979)

Advisory Opinion Text

Honorable T. E. Wiggins

Circuit Clerk, Lowndes County

Post Office Box 127

Columbus, Mississippi 39701

Dear Mr. Wiggins:

In accordance with your request for additional information relative to our opinion to you in re residency requirement candidate for constable dated May 4, 1979, by way of additional information and supplemental to said opinion, the following information is provided.

The terminology ‘that a candidate for constable must be a resident of the district which he seeks to serve as constable if elected to that office’, means that such candidate must be a legal resident within the definitions of legal residency so as to be a qualified elector of the district.

Temporary absence from a district does not necessarily constitute an abandonment of legal domicile or residence.

The question of whether or not a particular person is, or is not, a legal resident of a particular district, is one of fact which must be determined by the Party Executive Committee in primary elections and the County Election Commission in the case of independent candidates or in general elections.

As a matter of information and for the use of the Executive Committee and Election Commission in making a determination on the question of fact, whether or not a particular person is a legal resident of a particular election district, we enclose a copy of an opinion by Honorable W. D. Coleman to Mrs. Ethel C. Madison dated April 13, 1971, citing a number of cases discussing the question of residency and domicile.

Trusting this supplemental opinion will be adequate for your inquiry, I am

Very truly yours,

A.F. Summer, Attorney General.

Oscar P. Mackey, Assistant Attorney General.