Mississippi Advisory Opinions March 08, 2013: AGO 2013-00064 (March 08, 2013)

Advisory Opinion Text

The Honorable Danny Glaskox

Chairman

Jackson County Election Commission

4111Amonett Street

Pascagoula, Mississippi 39567

Re: Statewide Elections Management System (SEMS)

Dear Commissioner Glaskox:

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

Issue Presented

You inquiry concerns the role of county election commissioners regarding the maintenance of the Statewide Elections Management System (SEMS) database.

Response

The registration records and pollbooks are, by statute, records of the office of the county registrar. We have consistently opined that it is the exclusive duty and responsibility of the circuit clerk as the county registrar and custodian of the voter registration records, or a capable person duly authorized by the clerk, to enter the appropriate data into the computer to reflect the necessary changes to the registration records and pollbooks. MS AG Op. , Tapp (April 22, 1992); MS AG Op. , Horton (March 21, 1990). We suggest that the circuit clerk authorize at least one election commissioner to make the necessary changes in SEMS to insure that the voter rolls are accurate and up to date.

Applicable Law and Discussion

Mississippi Code Annotated Section 23-15-135 (Supp. 2012) provides:

The registration books of the several voting precincts of each county and the pollbooks heretofore in use shall be delivered to the registrar of the county, and they, together with the registration books and pollbooks hereafter made, shall be records of his office, and he shall carefully preserve the same as such; and after each election the pollbooks shall be speedily returned to the office of the registrar.

Section 23-15-165 provides in part:

(1) From and after July 1, 2002, the Office of the Secretary of State, in cooperation with the local registrars and election commissioners, shall begin to procure, implement and maintain an electronic information processing system and programs capable of maintaining a centralized database of all registered voters in the state. The system shall encompass software and hardware, at both the state and county level, software development training, conversion and support and maintenance for the system. This system shall be known as the "Statewide Elections Management System" and shall constitute the official record of registered voters in every county of the state.

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(4) The Secretary of State may, with the assistance of the advisory committee, adopt rules and regulations necessary to administer the Statewide Elections Management System. Such rules and regulations shall at least:

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(c) Provide security to insure that only the registrar, or his designee or other appropriate official, as the law may require, can add information to, delete information from and modify information in the system; (Emphasis added)

(d) Provide the registrar or his designee or other appropriate official, as the law may require, access to the system at all times, including the ability to download copies of the industry standard file, for all purposes related to their official duties, including, but not limited to, exclusive access for the purpose of printing of all local pollbooks;

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Paragraph 4(c) above requires that only the registrar, or his designee or other appropriate official, as the law may require, can enter data into SEMS. We find no law that "requires" county election commissioners to enter such data.

Conclusion

The circuit clerk is the custodian of the registration records and pollbooks and is responsible for inputting accurate data into SEMS. This includes the information provided by the county election commission resulting from the commission's statutory purging duties. We find nothing in the statutes governing SEMS that changes our long held position that it is the exclusive duty and responsibility of the circuit clerk or his or her designee to enter data into the computerized voter registration records. Circuit clerks may designate at least one election commissioner to input data into SEMS.

Sincerely,

Jim Hood, Attorney General.

Phil Carter, Special Assistant Attorney General.