Mississippi Advisory Opinions April 05, 2013: AGO 2013-00116 (April 05, 2013)

Advisory Opinion Text

TEXT: Ms. Imogene H. Armstrong

314 E. Washington Street

Okolona, Mississippi 38860-1539

AUTH: Phil Carter

RQNM: Imogene Armstrong

SUBJ: Elections

SBCD: 64

Re: County Election Commissioner as Candidate for City Council

Dear Ms. Armstrong:

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

Issue Presented

You state that you are presently serving your fourth term as a county election commissioner and ask if you may be a candidate for a seat on the Okolona City Council.

Response

No.

Mississippi Code Annotated Section 23-15-217 (Revised 2007) provides that in order for a county election commissioner to be a candidate for any other office, he or she must have resigned from the office of election commissioner before January 1 of the year in which he or she desires to seek the other office, except that a commissioner may be a candidate in a special election to fill a vacancy provided he or she resigns within ten (10) days after the notice of the special election is issued. This statutory requirement applies to a county election commissioner who is seeking a municipal office.

Analysis

Section 23-15-217(1) provides:

A commissioner of election of any county may be a candidate for any other office at any election held or to be held during the four-year term for which he has been elected to the office of commissioner of election or with reference to which he has acted as such; provided that he has resigned from the office of election commissioner before January 1 of the year in which he desires to seek the office. However, a commissioner of election of any county may be a candidate in a special election to fill a vacancy in any other office, provided he resigns as election commissioner within ten (10) days after the issuance of the notice of a special election by the appropriate authorities.

The Mississippi Supreme Court in Stringer v. Lucas, 608 So.2d 1351 (Miss. 1992) quoting from Meeks v. Tallahatchie County Election Commission , 513 So.2d 563 (Miss. 1987) said:

Perhaps more so than is the case with any other public official, the integrity of the office of Elections Commissioner must be totally beyond compromise or even perception of the possibility of compromise. The legislature has enacted that elections commissioners shall totally remove themselves from any taint or hint of suspicion or partisanship. They must be aloof from partisan politics as much as judges, if not more so. For what is at stake is public confidence in our system of self government. By law, once Eddie Meeks or anyone else assumes the office of Elections Commissioner, he becomes obligated to stay out of any other electoral endeavor for the term of his office, period. If this seem harsh, it is certainly less so than the adverse impact upon the public interest if our people come to doubt the integrity of the system.

(Emphasis added)

The Court then said:

The decision in Meeks applies to the facts of this case because Stringer had the statutory duty to purge and revise the voter rolls for the several precincts in Bolivar County. This duty and the mandate to keep the election commissioners above suspicion are in conflict. Also, the Meeks decision is very broad in stating that “no person holding the office of elections commissioner may be a candidate for election to any other office at any election held or to be held during the four year term for which that person has been elected elections commissioner.” Meeks, 513 So.2d at 566. No exemption was made, and indeed should not have been made in light of the above statutory duty, for county election commissioners who later decide to run for municipal offices.

(Emphasis added)

As in Meeks, the Chickasaw County Election Commission has the statutory duty to purge and revise the voter rolls for the several precincts in Chickasaw County including the City of Okolona.

Section 23-15-153 specifically requires county election commissioners to prepare the voter registration books of each municipality located within the county. It provides in part:

(7) The county registrar shall prepare the pollbooks and the county commissioners of election shall prepare the registration books of each municipality located within the county pursuant to an agreement between the county and each municipality in the county.

Conclusion

In order for a county election commissioner to be eligible to be a candidate for any other office, including a municipal office, he or she must resign as commissioner prior to January 1 of the year in which he or she wishes to seek the other office. A commissioner may, however, be a candidate in a special election to fill a vacancy provided he or she resigns within ten (10) days after the issuance of the notice of the special election by the appropriate authorities.

Sincerely,

JIM HOOD, ATTORNEY GENERAL

Phil Carter, Special Assistant Attorney General