Mississippi Advisory Opinions November 01, 1989: AGO 000007322 (November 1, 1989)

AGO 000007322.

Honorable Bobby Richardson Election Commissioner Route 2 Ripley, Mississippi 38663

Dear Mr. Richardson:

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

Your letter states:

"As a member of the Tippah County Election Commission, I would appreciate you taking the time to answer a pressing question for me.

Several of the members of the Election Commission have asked the Board of Supervisors if they would allow them to go ahead and purge the voter registration books this fall, since we will have several elections next year. The Board of Supervisors have told us that we need to wait until the county has reregistration to purge the books. I am enclosing copies of a couple of pages from our books to illustrate our dire need to rework the books.

My question to you is can the Election Commission go ahead and purge or correct the voter registration books over the objections of the Boars of Supervisors?"

Mississippi Code Annotated 23-15-153 (Supp. 1989) provides in part:

"(1) At the following times the commissioners of election shall meet at the office of the registrar and carefully revise the registration books and the pollbooks of the several voting precincts, and shall erase therefrom the names of all persons erroneously thereon, or who have died, removed or become disqualified as electors from any cause; and shall register the names of all persons who have duly applied to be registered and have been illegally denied registration:

(a) On the Tuesday after the second Monday in January 1987 and every year thereafter;

(b) On the first Tuesday in the month immediately preceding the first primary election for congressmen in the years when congressmen are elected;

(c) On the first Monday in the month immediately preceding the first primary election for state, state district, legislative, county and county district offices in the years in which such offices are elected; and

(d) On the second Monday of September preceding the general election or regular special election day in years in which a general election is not conducted.

No name shall be permitted to remain on the pollbooks except such as are duly qualified to vote in the election. Except as otherwise provided by Section 23-15-573, no person shall vote at any such election whose name is not on the pollbook.

(2) The commissioners of election shall be entitled to receive a per diem in the amount of Fifty Dollars ($50.00), to be paid from the county general fund, for every day or fraction thereof actually employed in the performance of their duties for the necessary time spent in the revision of the registration books and pollbooks as required in subsection (1) of this section subject to the following annual limitations:" (Emphasis added) ----- The above quoted statutory provisions make it mandatory that election commissioners remove the names of disqualified electors from the registration books and pollbooks. These provisions also mandate that the commissioners meet to perform their purging duties on the dates specified therein.

Sincerely,

MIKE MOORE ATTORNEY GENERAL

BY Phil Carter Special Assistant Attorney General

PC:mfd