Mississippi Advisory Opinions August 21, 1991: 19910821 (August 21, 1991)

Advisory Opinion Text

William R. Bradley, Esquire

Attorney for Coahoma County School District

Post Office Drawer 488

Clarksdale, Mississippi 38614

Dear Mr. Bradley:

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 been asked by the Chairman of the Coahoma County School District, which I represent, to write your office in an effort to determine whether or not the qualified electors of the City of Clarksdale may participate in the election of the County Superintendent of Education.

Prior to the re-districting of Coahoma County and other counties, and the changing of lines of the five (5) school board members pursuant to court action in which your office was a party, all qualified electors of the county were eligible, including those residents within the City of Clarksdale, to participate in the election of the County Superintendent of Education. Has the changing of the district lines and other changes, pursuant to Court Order, changed who is eligible to vote in the election of the County Superintendent of Education?

In summary, can a citizen of Clarksdale, who is a qualified voter, and in the Clarksdale Separate Municipal School District, participate in the election of the County Superintendent of Education in the next election?”

Mississippi Code Annotated § 37-5-71 (1972) provides that qualified electors who reside within a municipal separate or special municipal separate school district in certain counties shall not participate in the election of the county superintendent of education. Unless Coahoma County is described in Section 37-5-71 as a county in which the electors who reside within a Separate Municipal School District are not to participate in the election of the superintendent, said voters would be eligible to vote in such election. Whether Coahoma County is described in Section 37-5-71 is a question of fact which this office is unable to answer. We are unaware of any court order which would affect the above stated conclusions.

Sincerely,

Mike Moore, Attorney General.

Phil Carter, Special Assistant Attorney General.