MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1997 Regular Session

To: Elections

By: Senator(s) Harden

Senate Bill 2793

(As Sent to Governor)

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 23-15-11, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT A PERSON WHO WILL BE 18 YEARS OF AGE ON OR BEFORE THE GENERAL ELECTION MAY VOTE IN THE PRIMARY ELECTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE GENERAL ELECTION; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES. 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

 

SECTION 1. Section 23-15-11, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

23-15-11. Every inhabitant of this state, except idiots and insane persons, who is a citizen of the United States of America, eighteen (18) years old and upwards, who has resided in this state for thirty (30) days and for thirty (30) days in the county in which he offers to vote, and for thirty (30) days in the supervisor's district or in the incorporated city or town in which he offers to vote, and who shall have been duly registered as an elector by an officer of this state under the laws thereof, and who has never been convicted of any crime listed in Section 241, Mississippi Constitution of 1890, shall be a qualified elector in and for the county, municipality and voting precinct of his residence, and shall be entitled to vote at any election. Any person who will be eighteen (18) years of age or older on or before the date of the general election and who is duly registered to vote not less then thirty (30) days prior to the primary election associated with such general election, may vote in such primary election even though such person has not reached his or her eighteenth birthday at the time such person offers to vote at such primary election. No others than those above included shall be entitled, or shall be allowed, to vote at any election.

SECTION 2. The Attorney General of the State of Mississippi is hereby directed to submit this act, immediately upon approval by the Governor, or upon approval by the Legislature subsequent to a veto, to the Attorney General of the United States or to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in accordance with the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended and extended.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the date it is effectuated under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended and extended.