Mississippi Advisory Opinions October 30, 1991: AGO 000005436 (October 30, 1991)
Collection: Mississippi Attorney General Opinions
Docket: AGO 000005436
Date: Oct. 30, 1991
Advisory Opinion Text
AGO 000005436.
DOCK 1991-0774
AUTH Phil Carter
DATE 19911030
RQNM Billie Parker
SUBJ Elections-Ballots
SBCD 063-A
TEXT Mayor Billie Dove Parker
P. O. Box 145
Sunflower, Mississippi 38778
Dear Mayor Parker:
Attorney General Mike Moore has received your letter of request and has assigned it to me for research and reply. Your letter states:
Please give me an opinion on people within a county voting Affidavit Ballots in a precinct where they are not registered in that precinct. But they may be qualified in another precinct. They voted in this precinct due to redistricting and this precinct was closer to their homes.
I am not sure if this situation did take place but I would like to be prepared if so.
If at all possible I need this opinion by 5:00 p.m. The affidavit ballots will begin to be certified at 6:00 this evening.
In response to your inquiry, voters cannot vote by Affidavit Ballot in a precinct where they are not registered to vote. Mississippi Code Annotated Section 23-15-573 (Rev. 1990) states, in part:
No person whose name does not appear upon the pollbooks shall be permitted to vote in an election; but if any person offering to vote in any election whose name does not appear upon the pollbook shall make affidavit before one (1) of the managers of election in writing that he is entitled to vote, or that he has been illegally denied registration, his vote may be prepared by him and handed to the proper election officer who shall enclose the same in an envelope with the written affidavit of the voter and seal it and mark plainly upon it the name of the person offering to vote.
This section permits people whose names are not on the pollbook to vote by affidavit.
However, Mississippi Code Annotated Section 23-15-571 states: (3) A person offering to vote may be challenged upon the following grounds:
(a) That he is not a registered voter in the precinct; Therefore, even though Mississippi Code Annotated Section 23-15- 573 permits a person to vote by affidavit ballot whose names are not on the pollbooks, this person's vote is subject to challenge if he is attempts to vote in a precinct in which he is not a registered voter. A person can only vote by affidavit in the precinct in which he resides and is a registered voter.
Sincerely,
MIKE MOORE, ATTORNEY GENERAL
BY: Phil Carter Special Assistant Attorney General PCC:mfd