Mississippi Advisory Opinions February 16, 2001: AGO 2001-0083 (February 16, 2001)

Advisory Opinion Text

Judy A. Pace, Esquire

Assistant City Attorney

City of Gulfport

Post Office Box 1780

Gulfport, Mississippi 39502-1780

Re: Municipal Election Commissioners

Dear Ms. Pace:

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

As Assistant City Attorney for the City of Gulfport, Mississippi, I have been asked to determine whether a City of Gulfport Election Commissioner may qualify as a candidate for the Municipal Republican Executive Committee without resigning from her position as a City of Gulfport Election Commissioner. I have reviewed Honorable William G. Pechloff, Att'y Gen. Op 97-0803 (January 9, 1998) and advised the commissioner of the same, however, the commissioner has requested that an opinion specific to her situation be requested.

As we noted in the opinion cited in your letter, the Mississippi Supreme Court in Meeks v. Tallahatchie County , 513 So.2d 563, 569 (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 the perception of the possibility of compromise. The legislature has enacted that elections commissioners shall totally remove themselves from any taint or hint or suspicion of partnership. 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....

Based on the above, it is our opinion that a municipal election commissioner acting in an official capacity for a particular political party as a member of that party's executive committee would be contrary to what the Court said in Meeks .

Sincerely,

Mike Moore Attorney General

Phil Carter Special Assistant Attorney General