Mississippi Advisory Opinions October 09, 1984: 19841009 (October 09, 1984)

Advisory Opinion Text

Elections-Voter Registration

Honorable F. W. Stratton

Attorney for Town of Liberty

Post Office Box D

Liberty, Mississippi 39645

Dear Mr. Stratton:

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

Your letter states:

“House Bill Number 596, 1984 Legislature, amends statutes relative to registration and eliminates dual registration for residents of municipalities, reference is herein made particularly to the amendments of § 21-11-1 and 21-11-3 of the Mississippi Code of 1972 . The Town of Liberty plans to hold a special election for alderman on 7 September so I need a ruling from you at the earliest possible date relative to registrations. My question is this:

“Are residents of a municipality who are otherwise qualified electors but have not registered within the town automatically registered as a voter in the municipality since the passage of House Bill Number 273 with the Justice Department having made no objection to the passage of the bill? To say this in another way, in order to vote in a municipality must the residents who were not registered voters of the municipality prior to the passage of the bill now qualified to vote or must they still go through the registration procedure within the municipality. Possibly another view would be the question as to whether or not House Bill Number 273 merely affected the future registrants from and after its being in effect.”

In response to your inquiry, our records indicate that the U.S. Justice Department by letter dated August 14, 1984 interposed no objection to House Bill 596.

It is our opinion that the provisions of House Bill 596 became effective on August 14, 1984 and do not automatically and retroactively register individuals as municipal electors who, prior to said date, had registered only with the county registrar.

Therefore, it is necessary that such individuals register with the municipal registrar in order to be eligible to vote in municipal elections.

Very truly yours,

Edwin Lloyd Pittman, Attorney General