Martin, 013180 MSAGO, 19800131

Case DateJanuary 31, 1980
CourtSouth Carolina
Honorable Joe W. Martin, Jr.
No. 19800131
Mississippi Attorney General Opinions
January 31, 1980
         Honorable Joe W. Martin, Jr.          Circuit Clerk          Pascagoula, Mississippi 39567          Dear Mr. Martin:          Attorney General Bill Allain has received your request for opinion dated January 25, 1980, and has referred it to the undersigned for research and reply.          You state: “Our office is already receiving requests for absentee ballots from Military Personnel. Would it be appropriate to keep these requests (Standard Form 76) on file until we have an election - possibly not until June 3rd? Or does an application have to be received not more than 30 days prior to an election?          “Please advise this office your ruling in this matter.”.          It is assumed that the requests for absentee ballots from military personnel to which you refer as Standard Form 76 is “ . . . a duly executed federal postcard application (as provided for in Section 204 of the Federal Voting Assistance Act of 1955, 69 Stat. 584) as referred to in Section 23-9-507, Mississippi Code of 1972, Annotated and Amended. (1979 Cumulative Supplement to Vol. 6 of the 1972 Code).          Section 23-9-513, Mississippi Code of 1972, Annotated and Amended, (1979 Cumulative Supplement to Vol. 6 of the 1972 Code) provides: “In any elections, as soon as the deadline for the qualifications of candidates has passed, or thirty (30) days prior to the election, whichever is later, absentee ballots shall be prepared and printed for the elections, . . . when the proper application is made as is otherwise provided herein, the registrar shall send to the absent voter the proper absent voter ballots for the elections as is otherwise provided herein, and with such ballots there shall be sent also separate official envelopes for the return thereof.”.          Therefore, absentee ballots, as a practical matter, cannot be mailed to applicants therefor until after such ballots have been printed.          Section 23-9-515, Ibid, provides:Within thirty (30) days next prior to any election upon application first made to the registrar of the...

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