Mississippi Advisory Opinions October 01, 1984: 19841001 (October 01, 1984)

Advisory Opinion Text

Mr. Hoke Stone

Attorney

Quitman County Board of Supervisors

Post Office Box 158

Lambert, Mississippi 38643

Dear Mr. Stone:

Attorney General Edwin Lloyd Pittman has received your letter of request and has assigned it to me for research and reply, your letter stating:

“In my capacity as attorney for the Board of Supervisors of Quitman County, Mississippi, I am requesting that you give an opinion as to the interpretation of the above law as it amends Miss. Code Ann. § 23-5-203 (1972) and more particularly Section (6) thereof.

“A group in Quitman County, Mississippi interested in conducting voter registration drives has requested that several of their members be appointed as deputy registrars in this County and have indicated that workshops have been held by personnel of the Secretary of State's Office in which it has been indicated that a deputy registrar may take the oath of an applicant for registration at any place the applicant happens to be. This would permit the deputy registrar to go from house to house, assist in the preparation of the application and on the spot, administer the oath to the applicant. As I read the statute, 'the application for registration shall be sworn to and subscribed before the registrar or deputy registrar at the municipal clerk's office, the county registrar's office or any other location where the applicant is allowed to register to vote', the oath must be administered at one of these places and at no other place.

“Please give me your interpretation of the meaning of 'or any other location where the applicant is allowed to register to vote.

“I would like to have this by the time the Board of Supervisors meets on Friday, September 14, 1984.”

I am unaware of any authority the deputy registrar would have to go house-to-house in receiving registrants' applications to vote (or to administer the required oath to the applicant) but the deputy registrar's authority to receive voter registrations and administer the oath therein would be restricted to doing so only at the location where the “applicant is authorized to register to vote”.

Yours very truly,

Edwin Lloyd Pittman, Attorney General