Mississippi Advisory Opinions December 28, 1984: 19841228 (December 28, 1984)

Advisory Opinion Text

Mrs. Raymond Berkley

Election Commissioner

District 3, Franklin County

P. O. Box 267

Meadville, Mississippi 39653

Dear Mrs. Berkley:

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

...I would like to know if the name of a voter who no longer resides in the county should be removed from that county's poll books? If so, is there any responsibility to notify that individual that his or her name has been removed?

Basically, we are requesting a definition of resident as it pertains to voter qualification. We are aware that students, military personnel, etc., are considered residents for voting purposes but we are concerned about those individuals who reside outside the county but return to vote in this county. These individuals have mailing addresses, households and jobs that are not in this county and they maintain no households in this county.

To aid you, I offer the following examples:

1. A married couple moves to Madison County and the wife registered to vote there but the husband returns to Franklin County to vote.

2. A couple separates and the wife moves to another county, but she returns on election day to vote in Franklin County.

3. A college student graduates and moves to another county but returns to vote in this county.

Responsive to your first paragraph's first question is this office's opinion written by Special Assistant Attorney General Phil C. Carter to Election Commissioner Beryl G. Toler dated October 7, 1983, a copy of which is attached and by this reference made a part hereof, which states:

Mississippi Code Annotated Sections 23-5-79, -80 and -81 (Supp. 1983) govern the revision of registration books and poll books. Each of these sections provides in part:

“(T)he commissioners of election shall meet at the office of the registrar and carefully revise the registration books and the poll books of the several election districts, and shall erase therefrom the names of all persons erroneously thereon, or who have died, removed or become disqualified as electors for any cause;....

Whether or not an elector has removed himself from his election district is a factual determination which can only be made by the commissioners of election.

Therefore, if, after considering all the available information, the commissioners of election determine that an elector has in fact removed himself from his election district, the removal of his name from the registration books and poll books is required.

These (or other) statutes are not accompanied by any ?? of notice to the individual prior to his or her ?? for the cause or causes there stated.

You then, in your opinion ??

Quoting from a copy of ?? Carter to Election ?? 1981 (copy of ?? hereof):

...the ?? ?? ?? facts and ?? outward manifestations of ?? of the residence requirement... Then follow, in this attached opinion, about two pages of guidelines for your Election Commission to observe in making its own factual determination as to the residence of the elector.

We also attach a print copy of the Mississippi Supreme Court case of Hollowell v. Van Devender, Registrar , 358 So.2d 1328 (1978) in which an elector sought to vote in a county other than that in which he had applied for his homestead tax exemption.

But, although we are glad to share with you these guides, it is a factual determination that must be made by your Election Commission.

Yours very truly,

Edwin Lloyd Pittman, Attorney General