Mississippi Advisory Opinions August 14, 1984: AGO 000010335 (August 14, 1984)

AGO 000010335.

Dear Mr. Smith:

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

"1. Do I as County Registrar have to appoint municipal clerks who are serving as registrars for their respective municipalities to act as Deputy County Registrars?

2. Will the Deputy Registrars be compensated and by whom?"

23-5-7, Mississippi Code of 1972, as amended by Ch. 460, Laws of 1984, reads as follows:

"The State Board of Election Commissioners, on or before the fifteenth day of February succeeding each general election, shall appoint in the several counties registrars of elections, who shall hold office for four (4) years and until their successors shall be duly qualified. The registrar is empowered to appoint deputy registrars, with the consent of the board of election commissioners, who may discharge the duties of the registrar.

"The clerk of every municipality with a population of or in excess of five hundred (500) shall be appointed as such a deputy registrar, provided that such clerk is employed by the municipality on a full-time basis and the office of the clerk is held open for regular hours each day."

It appears that the county registrar must actually do the appointing of the municipal clerks as deputy registrars with the consent of the (state) board of election commissioners, but the statute mandates that the municipal clerk be the deputy registrar "if he or she is employed... on a full time basis and the office of the clerk is held open for regular hours each day." Also the population of the municipality must be 500 or more. The statutes make no provision for compensation as the clerk/deputy registrar for the duties hereunder but appear to just add county registration duties to the municipal clerk's other duties.

Yours very truly,

EDWIN LLOYD PITTMAN, ATTORNEY GENERAL

BY: Richard M. Allen Special Assistant Attorney General

RMA: