Mississippi Advisory Opinions May 15, 2003: AGO 000015628 (May 15, 2003)

AGO 000015628.

Dear Mr. Brown:

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

In July of 2002 the Board Attorney for the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors sent in documents to the Justice Department requesting approval for voting precinct changes in Lafayette County. Several members of the Board were not informed in detail of these changes and were not given copies of the documents. The changes were written and sent in without official Board approval. No official meeting of the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors was held to formally approve the documents, no public open meetings were held concerning the matter, and there are no official minutes or resolutions documented and recorded in the official Minute Book of the Meetings of the Board of Supervisors of Lafayette County.

There is a lot of public concern and unrest that the unanswered questions about the legality of all the voting precinct changes may jeopardize the validity of our upcoming election. There is much worry that there may be a possibility that if we do proceed with the election process with the changes in place that were made without formal, documented approval by the Board that the election could be challenged in a court of law and could even be rendered null and void. If this situation occurs, it could be very costly to Lafayette County in many ways.

I, therefore, in the best economic and political interest of the citizens of Lafayette County, formally ask for an official ruling on this situation from your department. I visited with Mr. Phil Carter in your office this week concerning this matter and left video tapes with him documenting the only two meetings where these voting precinct changes were discussed. A second meeting was said (by the Board Attorney) to have been held, but I do not recall an official meeting at which these documents were formally approved by the Board of Supervisors, and the Chancery Clerk has acknowledged that no minutes were recorded of said meeting.

The Mississippi Supreme Court has consistently held that a board of supervisors can only act through its minutes. George County Board of Supervisors v. Davis, 721 So.2d 1101 (Miss. 1998); Martin v. Newell, 23 So.2d 796 (Miss.1945); Noxubee County v. Long, 106 So. 83 (Miss. 1925); Smith v. Board of Supervisors, 86 So. 707 (Miss. 1921). Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 requires that any change in precinct lines or polling places be submitted to and approved by the U.S. Department of Justice prior to implementing such changes.

Based on the above cited authorities and the facts as stated in your letter, any attempted change in voting precincts or polling places that is not made a part of the official minutes of the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors (the Board) and approved by the U.S. Department of Justice would have no legal effect. Any election conducted utilizing precinct lines and/or polling places whose adoption is not reflected in the official minutes of the Board and approved by the U.S. Department of Justice would be subject to a legal challenge.

Sincerely,

MIKE MOORE, ATTORNEY GENERAL

By:

Phil Carter

Special Assistant Attorney General