Mississippi Advisory Opinions April 15, 1983: 19830415 (April 15, 1983)

Advisory Opinion Text

Benton County Election Commission

Post Office Box 262

Ashland, Mississippi 38603

Elections - Qualifications to Vote

Dear Commissioners:

Attorney General Allain has received your letter of request and has assigned it to me for research and reply.

Your letter states:

“As election commissioners of Benton County, we are frequently presented with questionable requests for voter registration. Several of these have surfaced recently with no concrete precedent established in our county. As election commissioners, we would like to now set such a precedent based on state law. Thus, the questions we place before you now.

“We have had several convicted felons apply for voting privileges. Some are released on parole, some have finished serving their term of imprisonment, and some have appeal cases pending. What are the exact voting laws as applied to these three types of applicants?”

Mississippi Code Annotated § 23-5-35 (1972) provides:

“A person who has been convicted of murder, rape, bribery, burglary, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretenses, perjury, forgery, embezzlement, or bigamy, shall not be registered, or if registered, the name of such person shall be erased from the registration book on which it may be found by the registrar or by the election commissioners. Whenever any person shall be convicted in the circuit court of his county of any of said crimes, the registrar shall thereupon erase “his name from the registration book; and whenever any person shall be convicted of any of said crimes in any other court of any county, the presiding judge thereof, or the justice of the peace, shall, on demand, certify the fact in writing to the registrar, who shall thereupon erase the name of such person from the registration book, and file said certificate as a record of his office.”

In response to your inquiry, persons who have been convicted of any of the crimes listed in the above statute may not have their right to vote restored except by reversal of the conviction on appeal, an act of the Legislature or a pardon granted by the Governor.

Parole, completion of a prison / jail sentence, or a pending appeal of a conviction does not restore the right to vote of an individual who has been convicted of one of the above listed crimes.

Very truly yours,

Bill Allain, Attorney General.