Mississippi Advisory Opinions October 17, 1984: 19841017 (October 17, 1984)

Advisory Opinion Text

Mrs. Barbara Dunn

Office of the Circuit Clerk

Hinds County

Post Office Box 327

Jackson, Mississippi 39205

Dear Mrs. Dunn:

Attorney General Pittman has received your letter of request and has assigned it to me for research and reply, your letter stating:

I respectfully request that you give me an opinion as to the question of, can a college campus have a central post office box to receive all requested absentee ballots? The purpose of this is to have a notary there when the students receive their ballots and can notarize their signatures there and then so they may return the ballot to the Circuit Clerk's Office immediately.

The statutory form of the application for an absentee ballot, found at § 23-9-407, Mississippi Code of 1972, includes the following language:

“I hereby make application for an official ballot, or ballots, to be voted by me at the election to be held in __ on __. Send 'Absent Elector's Ballot' to me (1) at the following address __, or (2) deliver some to me in person.”

Black's Law Dictionary , 4th Ed., defines “address” as “place where mail or other communications will reach person...Generally a place of business or residence.”

The secrecy of the ballot is a very important tenet of voting. In fact, included in the certificate of the attesting witness is this language:

That said voter exhibited to me his blank ballot; that said ballot was not marked or voted before the said exhibited the ballot to me; that said voter then retired out of my presence, but within my sight, and voted his ballot so that I could not see how he voted; that no one was present with said voter as he marked his ballot; that the said voter was not solicited or advised by me to vote for any candidate, question or issue. (Emphasis supplied.)

In this context “address” means the normal mailing address where an applicant's mail normally goes, not a mailing address “for absentee voting mailing purposes only.”

We point out that upon receipt of the ballot, the voter has a wide choice of attesting witnesses listed in § 23-9-409:

Any notary public, United States postmaster, assistant United States postmaster, clerk in charge of a contract postal station, or any officer having authority to administer an oath or take an acknowledgment...”,

so that use of the same post office box and the same notary at the post office is not necessary, and it is not advisable from a secrecy standpoint. Each voter must assume his or her own responsibility in receiving and properly voting his or her ballot and the statutory guides do not appear too restrictive.

Yours very truly,

Edwin Lloyd Pittman, Attorney General