Mississippi Advisory Opinions October 23, 1987: AGO 000008077 (October 23, 1987)

AGO 000008077.

Dear Mrs. Nicholson:

Attorney General Edwin Lloyd Pittman has received your letter of request and has assigned it to me for research and reply. In your letter you ask:

Is it required by law that the Poll Books be sealed in the Ballot Boxes for twelve days (12) during the appeal time.

I can find no statute which would require that the poll books be sealed in the ballot boxes. Miss. Code Ann. 23-15-591 (Supp. 1987) reads as follows:

When the votes have been completely and correctly counted and tallied by the managers they shall publicly proclaim the result of the election at their box and shall certify in duplicate a statement of the said result, said certificate to be signed by the managers and clerks, one (1) of the certificates to be enclosed in the ballot box, and the other to be delivered to and to be kept by one (1) of the managers and to be inspected at any time by any voter who so requests.

When the count of the votes and the tally thereof have been completed, the managers shall lock and seal the ballot box, having first placed therein all ballots voted, all spoiled ballots and all unused ballots.

There shall be enclosed therein also one (1) of the du- plicate receipts given by the manager who received the blank ballots received for that box; and the total ballots voted, and the spoiled ballots and the unused ballots must correspond in total with the said duplicate receipt or else the failure thereof must be perfectly accounted for by a written statement, under oath of the managers, which statement must be enclosed in the ballot box. There shall be also enclosed in said box the tally list, the receipt booklet containing the signed names of the voters who voted; and the number of ballots voted must correspond with the number of names signed in said receipt booklet. [Emphasis added]

In addition to those items listed above, 23-15-645 requires that all absentee voter applications, envelopes and the list of absent voters along with the absentee ballots and other election materials be returned to the registrar. This section indicates that those items should be enclosed in the ballot box with the regular ballots.

We also find in 23-15-135, a direction that poll books should be "speedily returned to the office of the registrar" after each election. Based upon the above, it is the opinion of this office that poll books should not be locked in the ballot boxes after elections but instead should be returned to the registrar to be kept in his office as other public records.

Should you have any questions or if we may be of further assistance, please do no hesitate to contact this office.

Sincerely,

EDWIN LLOYD PITTMAN, ATTORNEY GENERAL

BY ________________________________ John H. Emfinger Special Assistant Attorney General