Mississippi Advisory Opinions February 08, 1984: AGO 000004062 (February 8, 1984)

AGO 000004062.

Dear Mr. Conerly

Attorney General Edwin Lloyd Pittman has received your letter and assigned it to me for research and reply.

Your letter states:

....As City Attorney for the City of Hazlehurst, Mississippi, I request an opinion as to whether or not the City is required to make a submission for approval to call a special election under Section V of the Voting Rights Act based on the following factual situation:

Our Alderman from Ward I died suddenly with more than six months remaining in his term of office. In compliance with Statute 21-11-9, Miss. Code Ann. (1972), the City will call for a special election to fill the vacated seat on the Board of Aldermen. All sections of that statute concerning notice, time limits and qualification of candidates will be followed....

It is understood from information you supplied that the incumbents of Hazlehurst municipal elective offices attained office under a ward arrangement which was submitted to the Federal Department of Justice and not objected to by that department.

A general rule is that if what is done in an election would constitute a change in voting requirements, practices, or procedures of a State or political subdivision then such change would be submitted for federal scrutiny under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 1973c) See Perkins v. Matthews 400 U.S. 379, 27 L.Ed. 2d 476, 91 S. Ct. 431 (1971).

So far as is known by this office the holding of the municipal special election you describe would not require a submission under the Act so long as applicable existing State statutes are followed and there is no change in voting requirements, practices or procedures from the last Hazlehurst municipal election for elective offices.

With kind regards, I am

Very truly yours,

EDWIN LLOYD PITTMAN ATTORNEY GENERAL

BY: S. E. Birdsong, Jr. Assistant Attorney General

SEB,Jr./awt