Mississippi Advisory Opinions March 18, 1983: 19830318 (March 18, 1983)

Advisory Opinion Text

Schools - Trustees Elections

Mr. M. F. Surles

Superintendent of Education

Montgomery County

Winona, Mississippi 38967

Dear Mr. Surles:

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

Your letter states:

“We have a vacancy on the school board with an appointee serving at the present time. I have two questions:

“1) Will candidates be elected by the November 1983 ballot?

“2) What is the termination date for candidates to qualify?”

Mississippi Code Annotated § 37-5-7 (1972) provides in part:

“[M]embers of the board shall be elected for a term of six years at the regular general election held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November next preceding the expiration of the term of office of the respective member or members of such board. All members of the county board of education as herein constituted, shall take office on the first Monday of January following the date of their election.”

Section 37-5-19 provides:

“Vacancies in the membership of the county board of education shall be filled by appointment, within 60 days after the vacancy occurs, by the remaining members of the county board of “education. Said appointee shall be selected from the qualified electors of the district in which the vacancy occurs, and shall serve until the first Monday of January next succeeding the next general election, at which general election a member shall be elected to fill the remainder of the unexpired term in the same manner and with the same qualifications applicable to the election of a member for the full term .

“In the event the vacancy occurs more than five months prior to the next general election and the remaining members of the county board of education are unable to agree upon an individual to be appointed, any two of the remaining members may certify such disagreement to the county election commission. Upon the receipt of such a certificate by the county election commission, or any member thereof, the commission shall hold a special election to fill the vacancy, which said election, notice thereof and ballot shall be controlled by the laws concerning special elections to fill vacancies in county or county district offices. The person elected at such a special election shall serve for the remainder of the unexpired term.” (Emphasis added)

Section 37-5-9 provides in part:

“The name of any qualified elector who is a candidate for the county board of education shall be placed on the ballot used in the general elections by the county election commissioners, provided that the candidate files with the county election commissioners, not more than ninety (90) days and not less than sixty (60) days prior to the date of such general election, a petition of nomination signed by not less than fifty (50) qualified electors of the county residing within each supervisors district. Where there are less than one hundred (100) qualified electors in said supervisors district, it shall only be required that said petition of nomination be signed by at least twenty percent (20%) of the qualified electors of such supervisors district. The candidate in each supervisors district who receives the highest number of votes cast in the district shall be declared elected.”

In response to your first question, the names of properly qualified candidates to serve the remainder of an unexpired term on a county board of education when a temporary appointment has been made must appear on the ballot for the November 8, 1983, general election.

In response to your second question, the last day on which one may qualify as a candidate to fill a vacancy on a county board of education is sixty (60) days prior to the date of the general election (November 8, 1983). Therefore, by our count, the last day to qualify as a candidate for such office is Friday, September 9, 1983.

Very truly yours,

Bill Allain, Attorney General