Mississippi Advisory Opinions January 16, 1990: AGO 000004983 (January 16, 1990)

AGO 000004983.

Dear Secretary Molpus:

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

Your letter states:

"This office is hereby requesting an Official Attorney General's opinion on the following issues:

The rolls of registered voters are required by law to be kept by the circuit clerks of each county (Miss. Code Ann. Section 23-15-11 et seq. (1972). Are voter registration lists and applications for voter registration public records subject to the Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983 (Miss. Code Ann. Section 25- 61-3 et seq. (1972)?

Many of the voter registration lists in Mississippi counties are compiled and retained on computer. If the answer to the first question is in the affirmative, the second question is: Are voter registration lists retained in electronic for, i.e., in computer memory storage devices such as hard disk drives, diskettes, or magnetic tape subject to the Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983?"

As indicated in your letter Chapter 61, Title 25, Mississippi Code Annotated (Supp. 1989) is the "Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983" (the Act). Section 25-61-3 provides in part:

"The following words shall have the meanings ascribed herein unless the context clearly requires otherwise:

(a) "Public body" shall mean any department, bureau, division, council, commission, committee, subcommittee, board, agency and any other entity of the state or a political subdivision thereof,.....

(b) "Public records" shall mean all books, records, papers, accounts, letters, maps, photographs, films, cards, tapes, recordings or reproductions thereof, and any other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, having been used, being in use, or prepared, possessed or retained for use in the conduct, transaction or performance of any business, transaction, work, duty or function of any public body, or required to be maintained by any public body."

Section 25-61-5 (1) provides in part:

"Except as otherwise provided by sections 25-61-9 and 25-61-11, all public records are hereby declared to be public property, and any person shall have the right to inspect, copy or mechanically reproduce or obtain a reproduction of any public record of a public body in accordance with reasonable written procedures adopted by the public body concerning the cost, time, place and method of access, and public notice of the procedures shall be given by the public body, or, in the event that a public body has not adopted such written procedures, the right to inspect, copy or mechanically reproduce or obtain a reproduction of a public record of the public body shall be provided within one (1) working day after a written request for a public record is made...."

In response to your first question we find nothing that would exempt voter registration lists or applications for voter registration from the requirements of the above quoted statutory provisions. Therefore, in our opinion, voter registration lists and applications for voter registration are public records subject to the Act.

In response to your second question section 25-61-3 supra, specifically provides that records "regardless of physical form or characteristics" are public records. Therefore, it is the opinion of this office that voter registration lists retained in computer memory storage devices are subject to the Act.

Sincerely,

MIKE MOORE, ATTORNEY GENERAL

BY:

Phil Carter Special Assistant Attorney General

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