Mississippi Advisory Opinions June 15, 1988: 19880615 (June 15, 1988)

Advisory Opinion Text

Honorable Brenda A. Wiggs

Quitman County Circuit Clerk

Marks, Mississippi 38646-0284

Dear Ms. Wiggs:

Attorney General Mike Moore has received your letter of request and has assigned it to me for research and reply. I understand from your letter that Quitman County utilizes the optical mark voting system. Basically you ask whether it is required that you retain the program boards from the scanner after each election and if so, for how long.

We can find no statutory provision which specifically addresses the necessity of retaining the program boards used in the optical mark counting system. It is our opinion, however, that such boards must be retained during the period of time within which candidates could file a contest to the election and during the pendency of any election contest. Therefore, while it may be possible to return the old boards upon the receipt of a new board for the next election, if the time for contest has not run or if there is an election contest pending either before a county election committee or before the court, in our opinion it would be necessary to retain the old board until the issue of the contest is resolved.

While we do not issue opinions interpreting federal law, we would draw your attention to 42 U.S.C. § 1974 . Pursuant to this statute, election officers are required to retain for a period of twenty-two months “all records and papers which come into his possession relating to any application, registraton, payment of poll tax, or other act requisite to voting” in all federal elections.

Hopefully you find this responsive to your request. Should either you or American Information Systems, Inc. have any questions, please feel free to contact this office.

Sincerely,

Mike Moore, Attorney General.

John H. Emfinger, Special Assistant Attorney General.