Mississippi Advisory Opinions June 19, 2015: AGO 2015-00193 (June 19, 2015)

Advisory Opinion Text

AUTH: Connie Cochran

RQNM: Phil Carter

SUBJ: Elections - Commissioners

SBCD: 64

TEXT: The Honorable Connie Cochran

Chair, Hinds County Election Commission

Post Office Box 946

Jackson, Mississippi 39205-0946

Re: Hinds County Precinct 46

Dear Commissioner Cochran:

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

You point out that the Mississippi Legislature adopted Joint Resolutions Number 1 and Number 201 to redistrict the Mississippi State House and Senate respectively which became effective September 14, 2012. Those Resolutions now appear as editor's notes following Mississippi Code Annotated Sections 5-1-1 and 5-1-3 (Revised 2014) respectively.

You further indicate that there appears to be a discrepancy between the description of Senate District 26 set forth in the Resolution and the depiction of Senate District 26 on the maps that have been provided.

Question and Response

Question: Are we to follow the written description of the precincts included in the Joint Resolutions or should we follow the maps - which will require the splitting of Hinds Precinct 46 and while it is not directly an issue for our commission, how should the Highland Colony Baptist Church precinct of Madison County be treated for this and future elections - as part of SD 25 as described or as part of SD 26 as indicated on the map?

Response: County Election Commissions must follow the precinct boundaries as are contained in the Census 2010 Tiger/Line Shapefiles that were released in November 2010. If there is a discrepancy between the description of a district set out in Resolutions Numbers 1 (House) or 201 (Senate) and the maps of the House and Senate Districts developed by the Standing Joint Legislative Committee on Reapportionment, the maps will control.

Applicable Law

Section 5-1-3 provides:

The number of Senators shall be fifty-two and shall be elected from fifty-two (52) districts adopted as provided in Section 254 of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890.

The Editor's Note following Section 5-1-3 provides:

Chapter 2234, Laws of 2012 (Joint Resolution No. 201), entitled "A JOINT RESOLUTION TO REDISTRICT THE MISSISSIPPI STATE SENATE; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES," adopted by the Senate on May 2, 2012, and by the House of Representatives on May 3, 2012, and effective from and after September 14, 2012 (the date the United States Attorney General interposed no objection to the Joint Resolution), provides as follows:

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, That the number of Senators shall be fifty-two (52) and shall be elected from fifty-two (52) districts, composed as follows:

***

DISTRICT 25

Hinds County: 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 44, 45 and 78 Precincts.

Madison County: Bear Creek (split), Cobblestone, Gluckstadt (split), Highland Colony Baptist Church, Madison 1, Madison 2, Madison 3, Main Harbor, NorthBay, Ridgeland Tennis Center, SunnyBrook, Trace Harbor; Victory Baptist Church and Whispering Lake Precincts.

DISTRICT 26

Hinds County: 41, 43, 46, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, Bolton, Brownsville, Cynthia, Edwards, Pinehaven (split), Pocahontas and Tinnin Precincts.

***

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the boundaries of the senatorial districts described above shall be:

(a) The boundaries of the counties listed above as such boundaries existed as of January 1, 2010; and

(b) The boundaries of the precincts, census tracts and blocks listed above as such boundaries are contained in the Census 2010 Tiger/Line Shapefiles released November 2010.

***

(a) In any instance in which there is a conflict between the description of a district as set out in this resolution and the map of the Senate Districts developed by the Standing Joint Legislative Committee on Reapportionment in conjunction with the adopted redistricting plan, the map shall control; .... (Emphasis added)

***

Joint Resolution 1 contains similar language regarding discrepancies between the descriptions in the resolution and the maps in the reapportionment of the House of Representatives.

Sincerely,

JIM HOOD, ATTORNEY GENERAL

Phil Carter, Special Assistant Attorney General