Mississippi Advisory Opinions April 22, 1985: AGO 000004681 (April 22, 1985)

AGO 000004681.

Dear Ms. Coomer:

I am writing in regard to your recent opinion request concerning the effective date of the "dual registration" law. In pertinent part, your opinion request states as follows:

The City of Horn Lake Election Commission hereby request an opinion from your office as to the effective date of dual registration, which will be used for the June 4, 1985, General Municipal Election.

At a recent election seminar in Oxford, ... [it was] stated that May 9, 1984, would be used as the official date because that is the date the Governor signed the dual registration law, however, DeSoto County Circuit Clerk Jeanette Martin, advises that she had a ruling that August 4, 1984, was the effective date because that is the date the Justice Department approved the dual registration law.

Please submit your written opinion as to which of the two (2) above dates should be used to qualify electors, as soon as possible.

A review of the legislation in question, House Bill No. 596, 1984 Regular Session, shows that this bill was signed into law by the Governor on May 9, 1984, and was submitted to the Attorney General of the United States in accordance with the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended and extended, on May 31, 1984. The Attorney General of the United States stated that he would impose no objection to HB No. 596 on August 3, 1984.

Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, states which are subject to the Act, including Mississippi, are forbidden to implement any change in "any voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting" without first obtaining a declaratory judgement from the District Court for the District of Columbia that the proposed change does not have the purpose and will not have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote an account of race or color, or submitting the change to the Attorney General of the United States and receiving no objection within 60 days. 42 U.S.C.A. 1973(c); Morris v. Gressette, 432, U.S. 491 (1977); Hadnott v. Amos, 394 U.S. 358 (1969); Evers v. State Board of Election Commissioners, 327 F.Supp. 640 (S.D. Miss. 1971). After obtaining either judicial or administrative approval under the Voting Rights Act, the effective date of such legislation may then be determined.

As a general statement, legislative enactments usually contain a provision for the effective date of the legislation House Bill No. 596 contains such a provision which states as follows:

This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the date every section of the act is effectuated under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended and extended, and if House Bill NO. 713, introduced at the 1984 Regular Session of the Mississippi Legislature is approved by the Governor, or approved by the Legislature subsequent to a veto, and is effectuated under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended and extended. In the event that any section of this act is not effectuated under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended and extended, then the remaining sections shall not take effect and the act shall thereby stand repealed.

As previously stated, House Bill No. 596 was effectuated under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on August 3, 1984.

The Mississippi Attorney General's Office also received notice dated August 3, 1984, from the Attorney General of the United States that no objection to House Bill 713 would be imposed.

Therefore, it is the opinion of this office that the effective date of House Bill No. 596 is August 3, 1984.

Very truly yours,

EDWIN LLOYD PITTMAN, ATTORNEY GENERAL

BY:

Robert M. Arentson, Jr. Assistant Attorney General