Mississippi Advisory Opinions November 03, 1987: AGO 000008113 (November 3, 1987)

AGO 000008113.

Dear Mr. DeLong:

Attorney General Edwin Lloyd Pittman has received your letter of request and has assigned it to me for research and reply. A copy of your letter is attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference. Basically you ask, given the circumstances described in your letter, whether the candidate has properly qualified for the office of election commissioner.

In your letter you state that the candidate in question delivered her petition to the county registrar on June 4, 1987.

You further state that the registrar certified the petition on September 9, 1987, and on that day hand carried the qualifying petition to the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors for Washington County. The Clerk stamped the qualifying statement of intent and petition received by the Clerk's office on September 9, 1987.

There seem to be two statutes applicable to the issue you have raised. First, Miss. Code Ann. 23-15-839 (Supp. 1987) governs the manner in which vacancies for various county offices are filled. This statute does not, however, contain all the specifics as to how particular candidates are to qualify.

For this information you must refer to the specific statutes relating to the office in which the vacancy occurred.

In this case we must look to the statute that provides for the qualifications and methods of qualifying of county election commissioners. These may be found in 23-15-213. The statute requires that an appropriate petition be filed not less than sixty (60) days before the election. The statute further requires that the petition have attached thereto a certificate of the registrar showing the number of qualified electors on each petition. Thus it is the opinion of this office that both the petition and the certificate of the registrar must be filed with the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors not less than sixty (60) days before the election in order to be properly qualified under this statute.

We would further note, however, that the results are the same whether or not the petition in this case was filed timely.

Since she was the only person who attempted to qualify, she would have been appointed to serve the remainder of the term pursuant to 23-15-839. Also, since there are no candidates who have qualified for the office, she will serve the remainder of the term anyway. Pursuant to 23-15-839, she was appointed to serve until her successor is elected. Since no candidate will be elected, she will continue in office. Since next year is a regular election year for election commissioners, there will be no special election conducted and thus she will serve the remainder of the term.

Should you have any questions or if we may be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact this office.

Sincerely,

EDWIN LLOYD PITTMAN, ATTORNEY GENERAL

BY John H. Emfinger Special Assistant Attorney General

JHE:mfd Enclosure