Mississippi Advisory Opinions August 07, 2013: AGO 2013-00305 (August 07, 2013)

Advisory Opinion Text

TEXT: The Honorable Robert Graham

President, Hinds County Board of Supervisors

Post Office Box 686

Jackson, Mississippi 39205

AUTH: Phil Carter

RQNM: Robert Graham

SUBJ: Supervisors

SBCD: 220

Re: Payment of Expenses of Primary Elections

Dear Mr. Graham:

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

Issue Presented

Your letter states:

The Hinds County Board of Supervisors (the “Board”) has announced that a Special Election will be conducted to fill the vacancies in Districts Two and Four for the Board on Tuesday, November 5, 2013. The Board will also be responsible for conducting any runoffs associated with those elections. However, the Democratic and Republican parties within Hinds County have decided and announced that they will conduct Primary elections on September 24, 2013 to establish party candidates for the vacancies prior to the general election in November. The dilemma is that Hinds County is at the end of its budget year and has not budgeted for these unforseen expenditures.

Please accept this correspondence as a formal request for an opinion on the following issue:

(1) The Hinds County Board of Supervisors (the “Board”) is requesting an opinion as to whether the Board is obligated to fund a primary election, which historically has never been held prior to a Special Election scheduled on the standard statutory Special Election Day. If we must fund this election, should the County be required to pay for primaries called by the political parties and spend ninety thousand dollars ($90, 000) out of the general fund that was not budgeted or would it be more prudent to conduct the general election that will be held two months after the proposed date for the special party primaries?

Representatives from the political parties’ committees were unable to furnish the Board with any legal or practical reason as to why the Board should fund these special primaries held by the Democratic and Republican parties.

Response

Please see the enclosed copy of our opinion to Tony Gaylor, dated today in which we said that the Hinds County Board of Supervisors is statutorily obligated to pay the expenses of the primary elections in question.

Sincerely,

JIM HOOD, ATTORNEY GENERAL

Phil Carter, Special Assistant Attorney General