Mississippi Advisory Opinions August 05, 1985: 19850805 (August 05, 1985)

Advisory Opinion Text

Mr. Mary Holmes

Chairman

Grenada Election Commission

Post Office Box 310

Grenada, Mississippi 38901

Dear Ms. Holmes:

The Office of the Attorney General is in receipt of your opinion request which states as follows:

“Grenada City and County are considering changing the election system from paper ballots to voting machines. With mechanical voting apparatuses, will it be possible to legally reduce the number of workers per table?

“I noticed in literature furnished by one voting machine representative that Pearl County had reduced the number of workers by one-half with the change from paper ballots to voting machines. We feel that three people per table is ample to do the job with much less confusion than with five people.

“Please advise us of your opinion on this matter.

“In reference to the 1972 Mississippi Code, Volume 6, Section 23-7-23: It seems as though the City of Grenada will be divided into seven wards in the near future, instead of the four wards as we had in our last election. This will put 1600 or - voters per ward. Will we need to consider four boxes per ward or will two or three be within legal guidelines? Seldom have we had as much as 50% voter turn-out. With three boxes each ward would average 266, far below the maximum of 500.

“Please advise us so we can figure the number of voting stations to purchase.”

It is the opinion of this office, as correctly stated in your letter, that State law requires three managers [23-5-99 Mississippi Code 1972, Annotated (1984 Supp.)] and two clerks [23-5-103, Mississippi Code 1972, Annotated (1984 Supp.)] per election box. There is no provision in either section to reduce the number of said poll workers when voting machines are utilized.

However, pursuant to § 23-5-13, Mississippi Code of 1972, Annotated (1984 Supp.), the total number of managers and clerks can be reduced since with the use of voting machines, the 500 qualified electors limit per box is not applicable. Therefore, even though there is no statutory authority to reduce the number of poll workers per box, the number of boxes can be reduced by the use of voting machines thereby, possibly eliminating the same number of boxes previously utilized.

Very truly yours,

Edwin Lloyd Pittman, Attorney General.