MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1999 Regular Session

To: Constitution

By: Representative Flaggs

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION PROPOSING TO AMEND THE MISSISSIPPI CONSTITUTION OF 1890 BY CREATING A NEW SECTION TO PROVIDE THAT A PERSON WHO HAS SERVED TWO CONSECUTIVE TERMS IN AN ELECTED PUBLIC OFFICE IN THIS STATE SHALL BE INELIGIBLE AS HIS OR HER IMMEDIATE SUCCESSOR IN SUCH OFFICE; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, That the following amendment to the Mississippi Constitution of 1890 is proposed to the qualified electors of the state:

Amend the Mississippi Constitution of 1890 by creating a new section to read as follows:

"Section __. A person elected to a public office in this state, whether such office is a state, county or municipal office, shall be eligible to succeed himself or herself in such office, but no person who has been elected to a public office in this state for two (2) successive terms after the ratification of this amendment shall be eligible to hold that same office again until at least one (1) term of such office has intervened. In determining how many terms a person has served in an elective public office, a fraction of a term shall not be counted as one (1) term. This section shall not apply to any elected public office upon which a term limitation is imposed elsewhere in this Constitution."

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this proposed amendment shall be submitted by the Secretary of State to the qualified electors at an election to be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November 1999, as provided by Section 273 of the Constitution and by general law.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the explanation of this proposed amendment for the ballot shall read as follows: "This proposed constitutional amendment provides that a person who has been elected to two consecutive terms in an elected public office in this state shall not be eligible as his or her immediate successor in such office until an absence of one (1) term from such office."

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Attorney General of the State of Mississippi shall submit this resolution, immediately upon adoption by the Legislature, 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.