McCool, 030675 MSAGO, 1975-0010

• Case Date: March 06, 1975
• Court: Mississippi

Mrs. Sara B. McCool No. 1975-0010 Mississippi Attorney General Opinions March 6, 1975          Mrs. Sara B. McCool          Clerk of Circuit Court          Attala County          Kosciusko, Mississippi 39090          Dear Mrs. McCool:          Attorney General Summer has received your request for opinions regarding several questions you present and has referred the same to the undersigned for research and reply.          You advise that a beer referendum is to be conducted in Attala County in the near future in connection with which you present a number of questions on which you request an opinion. Each of the questions shall be set forth below followed by my response thereto.          “1. How long do you have to be registered before you can sign a petition?”          It is presumed that you are having reference to a petition filed pursuant to the provisions of Section 67-3-7, Mississippi Code of 1972, Annotated, which provides, among other things, that:

         “An election to determine whether such transportation, storage, sale, distribution, receipt and / or manufacture of such beverages shall be excluded from any county in the state, shall on a petition of twenty percent (20%) of the duly qualified electors of such county, be ordered by the board of supervisors thereof, for such county only.”

         It was held by the Mississippi Supreme Court in the case of Moffett v. Attala County, 181 M. 419, 179 So. 352, that:

         “Qualifications of electors were properly determined as of hour petition considered and ordered passed, . . . ”

         Consistent with this decision, the Mississippi Supreme Court in a later case, Miles v. Scott County, 200 M. 214, 26 So. 2d. 541, held that:

         “The number of qualified voters in the county and the percentage on the petition must be determined as of the time that the matter is considered by the board, not as of the time that the petition is filed.” (Emphasis added)

         It is to be seen from the cited Supreme Court decisions that Section 67-3-7, Supra, has been construed to vest in the board of supervisors the exclusive authority, subject to judicial review, to determine whether a person whose name appears upon a petition is a qualified elector and that such determination is required to be made by the board of supervisors as of the time that the matter is considered by the board and not as of the time that the petition is filed.          I am unable to find any statute or Mississippi Supreme Court decision wherein the question of whether one is a qualified elector and, therefore, required to be counted on a petition is related in any way to when such person signed such petition in relation to registration to vote.          For your further information, however, regarding the determination of qualifications to vote, Section 241 of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890 and Section 23-5-85, Ibid, have been superseded by federal court orders reducing the required time of registration and residence to thirty (30) days in the state, county and election district, or precinct, on or before the day of the election. However, based upon the above and foregoing cited Supreme Court decisions, such registration and residence for not less than thirty (30) days is required to be determined or computed from the time that the petition is considered by the board. The sole question being whether one whose name appears on the petition is a qualified elector and not when such person may have signed the petition, whether before or after registering to vote, it necessarily follows that it is my opinion that it is immaterial whether the petition is signed before or after registering to vote so long as the registeration is not less than thirty (30) days prior to the time on which the board of supervisors considers the petition. “2. Who can go in booth with voter? Change since 1942?” The United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in the case of United States of America, Plaintiff, v. State of Mississippi, et al, Defendants, reported in 256 Fed.Supp. 344, entered a declaratory judgment on May 21, 1966, Paragraph IV, of which is hereby quoted for your information:

“It is the duty and responsibility of the precinct officials at each election to provide to each illiterate voter who may request it such reasonable assistance as may be necessary to permit such voter to cast his ballot in accordance with the voter's own decision.”

Section 23-5-157, Mississippi Code of 1-72, Annotated, provides:

Any voter who declares to the managers of the election that, by reason of blindness or

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