Mississippi Advisory Opinions February 19, 1992: 19920219 (February 19, 1992)

Advisory Opinion Text

Thomas L. Stennis, Esquire

Attorney for Jackson County Board of Supervisors

Post Office Box 998

Pascagoula, Mississippi 39568

Dear Mr. Stennis:

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

“Section 23-15-235 of the Mississippi Code of 1972 provides procedures for appointment of additional election managers.

Section 23-15-231 provides that election managers ‘... shall not all be of the same political party if suitable persons of different political parties can be found in the district.’

Please provide me with your opinion as to whether election managers may be appointed as set forth in the formula based on total voter registration in each voting precinct in Section 23-15-235 for each political party which fields candidates. For example:

Should a voting precinct qualify for 6 managers to conduct the election as set forth in Section 23-15-235, would the precinct require 6 managers for each political party?”

We assume from your letter that you are referring to general or special elections to be conducted by the Jackson County Election Commission.

Please note that Mississippi Code Annotated § 23-15-231 (Revised 1990) only requires that three (3) managers be appointed for each voting precinct. The appointment of additional pollworkers pursuant to Section 23-15-235 is discretionary and, in our opinion, represents the total number of pollworkers that may lawfully be appointed and was not intended to authorize the appointment of that number for each political party. Therefore, in response to your specific question, regardless of how many managers could lawfully be appointed to conduct an election in a particular precinct, the commissioners are only required to appoint a total of three (3) managers per precinct.

Sincerely,

Mike Moore Attorney General.

Phil Carter Special Assistant Attorney General.