Mississippi Advisory Opinions August 21, 1979: 19790821 (August 21, 1979)

Advisory Opinion Text

Honorable Jerry Moore

Circuit Clerk

Alcorn County

Corinth, Mississippi 38834

Dear Mr. Moore:

Attorney General Summer has received your request for opinion and has referred it to the undersigned for research and reply.

Your request for opinion is quoted in the entirety, as follows:

‘I would appreciate your opinion as to the changes of box holders in the second primary. Please inform this office the proper procedure for this to be done. Some of the executive committee are calling to inform this office to notify new people to help hold the election. The people who helped hold the first primary were all told that they would hold the second primary also. This is pursuant to our telephone conversation August 20.’.

The pertinent statutes to the question you present are set forth below with excerpts therefrom which specifically apply.

Section 3115 in the Appendix to the 1978 Cumulative Supplement to Volume 6 of the Mississippi Code of 1972 provides:

‘The county executive committee of each county shall meet two (2) weeks to a day before the date of any primary election and appoint the managers for same; provided, however, if said committee fails to meet on the date named, supra, further notice shall be given of the date and place of meeting.’

Section 3126, ibid, provides:

‘The ballot boxes provided by the regular commissioners of election in each county shall be used in primary elections, and the county executive committees shall distribute them to the election districts of the county before the time for opening the polls, in the same manner, as nearly as may be, as that provided upon that subject in the chapter on Registration and Elections.’

It is provided upon the subject of the distribution of ballot boxes in the Chapter on Registration and Elections in Section 23–5–127, ibid, among other things, that:

‘The commissioners of election, in appointing the manages of election, shall designate one of the managers at each voting place . . . other than the courthouse, to carry to the said voting place, on the day previous to the election, the ballot boxes, the poll books, the blank tally sheets, the blank forms to be used in making returns, the other necessary stationery and supplies and the official printed ballots aforesaid, . . .’.

It is perceived that your primary concern regarding the question you present is to release the ballot boxes and other items to the proper manager having been appointed and designated in accordance with the above and foregoing cited statutes.

The question you present is interpreted to relate to managers who have been appointed in conformance with the above cited statutes who held the first primary election and who were also appointed to hold the second primary election.

I am unaware of any other statute relating to the appointment of election managers and receiving managers, so that it necessarily follows that it is the opinion of this office that any changes in the appointment of managers other than by the county executive committee by a majority of a quorum of such committee would not be legally authorized and that you would not be required to recognize any such changes in said appointments.

It, however, is the opinion of this office that the executive committee upon giving the required notice may meet and by a majority of a quorum remove for good cause any manager selected or to fill any vacancy in order to conduct the second primary.

A list of the receiving managers appointed by the executive committee should be furnished the clerk in writing.

Section 23–5–99, ibid, provides, among other things, that:

‘If any person appointed shall fail to attend and serve, the managers present, if any, may designate one to fill his place; and if the commissioners of election fail to make the appointments, or, in case of the failure of all those appointed to attend and serve, any three qualifies electors present when the polls should be opened may act as managers.’

It is apparent that the changes contemplated by this statute are made at the polling place where one or more managers fail to appear or may not be appointed.

Very truly yours,

A. F. Summer Attorney General.

W. D. Coleman Deputy Attorney General.