Mississippi Advisory Opinions September 11, 1979: 19790911 (September 11, 1979)

Advisory Opinion Text

Honorable Emmette P. Allen

Attorney at Law

P. O. Box 828

Brookhaven, Mississippi 39601

Dear Mr. Allen:

Attorney General A. F. Summer has received your letter of request dated August 30, 1979, and has assigned it to this writer for research and reply.

Your letter states as follows:

‘This letter will confirm our telephone conversation of August 29, 1979, relative to the questions I submitted to you about absentee ballots.

‘Lincoln County uses the punch card system for elections and these cards are counted by computer. The absentee ballots are counted by hand and in the process of counting these ballots the Executive Committee ran into a large number of absentee ballots that did not have the seal of the Circuit Clerk acting in her capacity as Registrar, who witnessed many of these absentee ballots, both in her office and away from her office. The Executive Committee took the position that these ballots should not be counted and you informed us by telephone that Mr. Summer had ruled that these ballots should be counted.

‘Would you please confirm this ruling by letter?’

Section 23–9–409(1)(A), Mississippi Code of 1972, Annotated, as amended, states as follows:

‘(1) The registrar shall enclose with each ballot sent to an absent elector separate printed instructions furnished by him containing the following:

‘(A) All absentee voters, excepting those physicially incapacitated, who mark their ballots in the county of the residence shall use the registrar of that county as the witness. Said absentee voter shall come to the office of the registrar and neither the registrar nor his deputy shall be required to go out of the registrar's office to serve as an attesting witness.’

Section 23–9–409(1)(C), supra, states in part as follows:

‘The registrar shall enclose with each ballot sent to an absent elector separate printed instructions furnished by him containing the following:

‘Any notary public, United States postmaster, assistant United States postmaster, United States postal supervisor, clerk in charge of a contract postal station, or any officer having authority to administer an oath or take an acknowledgment may be an attesting witness. If a postmaster, assistant postmaster, postal supervisor, or clerk in charge of a contract postal station acts as an attesting witness, his signature on the elector's certificate must be authenticated by the cancellation stamp of their respective post offices. If one or the other officers herein named acts as attesting witness, his signature on the elector's certificate, together with his title and address, but no seal , shall be requried . . ..’ (Emphasis Added)

Accordingly, it is the opinion of this office that where the Registrar serves as attesting witness, said absentee ballot is valid if it contains the signature of the attesting witness, the official title of the attesting witness and the address of the attesting witness. The statute specifically provides that no seal shall be required where said Registrar serves as attesting witness.

With personal regards, I am

Very truly yours,

A. F. Summer Attorney General

Donald Clark, Jr. Special Assistant Attorney General