MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1999 Regular Session

To: Elections

By: Senator(s) Harden (By Request)

AN ACT TO CLARIFY THE MANNER IN WHICH THE NAMES OF VOTERS ARE REMOVED FROM THE REGISTRATION BOOKS AND POLLBOOKS; TO PROVIDE THAT INFORMATION RECEIVED BY AN ELECTION COMMISSION FROM ANOTHER JURISDICTION INDICATING THAT A VOTER IN THE ELECTION COMMISSION'S COUNTY HAS REGISTERED TO VOTE IN ANOTHER JURISDICTION SHALL BE CONSIDERED A REQUEST TO REMOVE THE VOTER'S NAME FROM THE REGISTRATION BOOKS AND POLLBOOKS OF THE ELECTION COMMISSION'S COUNTY AND THE ELECTION COMMISSION SHALL REMOVE SUCH VOTER'S NAME FROM THE REGISTRATION BOOKS AND POLLBOOKS; TO REQUIRE THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO PRESCRIBE CERTAIN REGISTRATION BOOK AND POLLBOOK MAINTENANCE FORMS TO BE USED BY ELECTION COMMISSIONS; TO REQUIRE ELECTION COMMISSIONS TO CONDUCT AN ONGOING GENERAL REGISTRATION BOOK AND POLLBOOK MAINTENANCE PROGRAM TO PROTECT THE INTEGRITY OF THE ELECTORAL PROCESS BY ENSURING THE MAINTENANCE OF ACCURATE AND CURRENT VOTER REGISTRATION RECORDS; TO AMEND SECTION 23-15-11 AND 23-15-13, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT TO BE ELIGIBLE TO VOTE A PERSON DOES NOT HAVE TO BE A RESIDENT FOR 30 DAYS IN THE SUPERVISOR'S DISTRICT IN WHICH HE OFFERS TO VOTE AND TO AUTHORIZE A VOTER'S REGISTRATION TO BE TRANSFERRED AT ANY TIME UP TO 30 DAYS BEFORE THE ELECTION IF HE MOVES TO ANOTHER WARD OR VOTING PRECINCT WITHIN THE SAME MUNICIPALITY OR COUNTY; TO AMEND SECTION 23-15-153, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT THE REMOVAL OF NAMES FROM THE REGISTRATION BOOKS AND POLLBOOKS BASED ON A CHANGE IN THE RESIDENCE OF THE VOTER MUST BE DONE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS OF THIS ACT; TO AMEND SECTION 23-15-139, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO UTILIZE THE STATEWIDE VOTER REGISTRATION RECORD TO IDENTIFY THE NAMES OF VOTERS WHO HAVE BEEN CONVICTED OF DISENFRANCHISING CRIMES AND TO REQUIRE ALL STATE AGENCIES AND POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS OF THE STATE TO PROVIDE THE SECRETARY OF STATE SUCH INFORMATION AS HE CONSIDERS NECESSARY TO PERFORM HIS DUTIES IN REGARD TO THE STATEWIDE VOTER REGISTRATION RECORD; TO PROVIDE THAT THE NAMES OF ALL VOTERS WHOSE REGISTRATION HAS BEEN CANCELLED AS A RESULT OF THE ELECTOR NOT VOTING FOR FOUR SUCCESSIVE YEARS SHALL BE RETURNED TO THE REGISTRATION BOOKS AND POLLBOOKS AND SHALL BE TREATED IN THE SAME MANNER AS ELECTORS WHO HAVE CHANGED THEIR PLACE OF RESIDENCE; TO REPEAL SECTION 23-15-159, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH REQUIRES THAT THE NAMES OF PERSONS WHO HAVE NOT VOTED IN AT LEAST ONE ELECTION IN THE LAST FOUR SUCCESSIVE YEARS BE ERASED FROM THE REGISTRATION BOOKS AND POLLBOOKS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

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

SECTION 1. (1) Each county registrar shall ensure that any qualified applicant for voter registration is registered to vote. Once a voter is registered, the name of that voter shall not be removed from the registration books and pollbooks except:

(a) At the written request of the voter;

(b) By reason of the voter's conviction of a disenfranchising crime;

(c) By reason of adjudication of the voter as mentally incapacitated with respect to voting;

(d) By death of the voter; or

(e) By reason of a change of residence pursuant to a registration book and pollbook maintenance program or other registration book and pollbook maintenance activity conducted pursuant to law.

(2) Information received by an election commission from an election official in another jurisdiction indicating that a voter in the election commission's county has registered to vote in another jurisdiction shall be considered as a written request from the voter to have the voter's name removed from the registration books and pollbooks of the election commission's county and the county election commission shall remove the name of the voter from the registration books and pollbooks.

(3) Each election commission shall maintain for at least two (2) years, and make available for public inspection and copying, all records concerning implementation of registration book and pollbook maintenance programs and activities conducted pursuant to Section 3 of this act. The records shall include lists of the name and address of each person to whom an address confirmation final notice was sent and information as to whether each person responded to the mailing, but shall not include any information that is confidential or exempt from the Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983.

SECTION 2. The Secretary of State shall prescribe certain registration book and pollbook maintenance forms to be used by the election commission, which shall include:

(a) An address confirmation which shall be a nonforwardable mailing that shall contain the voter's name and address of legal residence as shown on the voter registration record and shall contain a request that the election commission be informed if either the name or the address of legal residence of the voter is incorrect.

(b) An address confirmation final notice, which shall be sent by forwardable mail and shall contain a postage prepaid, preaddressed return form and shall contain language which states the equivalent of the following:

(i) That if the voter has not changed his or her address of legal residence or has changed address of legal residence within the county, or has changed his or her legal name, the voter should return the return form within thirty (30) days after the date of the notice.

(ii) That if the return form is not returned and the voter does vote or appear to vote by the second federal general election thereafter, the voter's name will be removed from the voter registration books.

(iii) That if the voter has changed his or her address of legal residence to a location outside the county the voter should return the form, which will serve as a request to be removed from the registration books, and the voter will be provided with information on how to register in the new jurisdiction in order to be eligible to vote.

(iv) That if the card is not returned, the voter may be required to vote by affidavit ballot in any subsequent election up to and including the second federal general election after the confirmation mailing is sent.

SECTION 3. (1) County election commissions shall conduct an ongoing general registration book and pollbook maintenance program to protect the integrity of the electoral process by ensuring the maintenance of accurate and current voter registration records. The program shall be uniform, nondiscriminatory and in compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

(2) County election commissions shall incorporate one or both of the following procedures in their registration list maintenance program:

(a) A procedure by which change-of-address information supplied by the United States Postal Service through its licensees is used to identify registered voters whose addresses might have changed; or

(b) A procedure by which change-of-address information is identified from returned nonforwardable, return-if-undeliverable mail sent to all registered voters in the county.

(3) A registration book and pollbook maintenance program shall be conducted by each election commission at least once each year and shall be completed not later than ninety (90) days before the date of any federal election. A voter's name may not be removed from the registration books or pollbooks later than ninety (90) days before the date of a federal election; however, that nothing in this section shall prohibit the removal of the name of a voter from the voter registration books and pollbooks at any time and without prior notification upon the written request of the voter, by reason of conviction of the voter of a disenfranchising crime, by reason of adjudication of the voter as mentally incapacitated with respect to voting or by reason of the death of the voter.

(4) (a) If the county election commission receives change-of-address information from one of the procedures authorized in subsection (2) of this section, from jury notices returned to the courts, or on the basis of any other factual determination by the county election commission that indicates the voter has moved from one location to another within the registrar's county, the election commission shall change the registration records to show the new address and shall send the voter a notice of the change by forwardable mail on which the registrant may verify or correct the address information.

(b) If the county election commission receives change-of-address information from one of the procedures authorized in subsection (2) of this section or from jury notices returned to the courts or on the basis of any other factual determination by the county election commission that indicates the voter has moved outside the registrar's county or receives change-of-address information that contains no forwarding address, the county election commission shall send an address confirmation final notice to the last known address of the voter and designate the voter as inactive but maintain the voter's name on the registration books and pollbooks. The registrar shall redesignate the voter as active if, within the next two (2) federal general elections after the address confirmation final notice is sent, the voter:

(i) Returns the postage prepaid, preaddressed return form and indicates that his or her residence is in the registrar's county;

(ii) Votes by affidavit ballot in the registrar's county as authorized by subsection (5) of this section at an election that is conducted in the registrar's county;

(iii) Changes his or her voter registration to another location in the registrar's county; or

(iv) Properly requests an absentee ballot for an election that is conducted in the registrar's county.

(c) If the voter is not redesignated as active within the time period running through the day after the second of the next two (2) federal elections after the address confirmation final notice is sent, the county election commission shall remove the voter from the registration books and pollbooks.

(5) A voter who has been designated as inactive may vote at the precinct in which he or she resides by affidavit ballot at any election that occurs within the next two (2) federal general elections after the address confirmation final notice is sent, and may change his or her name or address of legal residence at the polls by completing the affidavit ballot.

(6) Voters designated as inactive shall not be used to calculate the number of signatures needed on any petition.

SECTION 4. 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 incorporated city or town in which he offers to vote, and who shall have been duly registered as an elector * * *, 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 5. Section 23-15-13, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

23-15-13. An elector who moves from one ward or voting precinct to another ward within the same municipality or voting precinct within the same county shall not be disqualified to vote, but he or she shall be entitled to have his or her registration transferred to his or her new ward or voting precinct upon making written request therefor at any time up to thirty (30) days prior to the election at which he or she offers to vote, and if the removal occurs within thirty (30) days of such election he or she shall be entitled to vote in his or her new ward or voting precinct by affidavit ballot as provided in Section 23-15-573.

SECTION 6. Section 23-15-139, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

23-15-139. (1) From and after July 1, 1998, the Office of the Secretary of State shall maintain a statewide voter registration record listing all qualified electors in the State of Mississippi. The statewide voter registration record shall be compiled by the Secretary of State from the records of voter registration submitted by each county registrar of this state and shall consist of a copy of the computer record maintained by each registrar pursuant to Section 23-15-114. Voters registered under the National Voter Registration Act shall be included in such list.

(2) The Secretary of State shall utilize the statewide voter registration record for the purpose of identifying voters who may have moved from or within a county to another jurisdiction, identifying the names of voters who may be deceased, identifying the names of voters who may be registered in more than one (1) county and identifying the names of voters who have been convicted of disenfranchising crimes. Any such information secured by the Secretary of State in accordance with this act indicating the possible need for revising a county's voter registration records shall be forwarded to the county and municipal election commissions and the county and municipal registrars on a periodic basis, upon receipt of which the appropriate election commission shall revise the voter registration records, in accordance with applicable state and federal law.

(3) All state agencies and political subdivisions of the state shall provide the Secretary of State with such information as he considers necessary to carry out his duties under this section.

SECTION 7. Section 23-15-153, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

23-15-153. (1) At the following times the commissioners of election shall meet at the office of the registrar and carefully revise the registration books and the pollbooks of the several voting precincts, and shall erase from those books the names of all persons erroneously on the books, or who have died, removed or become disqualified as electors from any cause; and shall register the names of all persons who have duly applied to be registered and have been illegally denied registration:

(a) On the Tuesday after the second Monday in January 1987 and every following year;

(b) On the first Tuesday in the month immediately preceding the first primary election for congressmen in the years when congressmen are elected;

(c) On the first Monday in the month immediately preceding the first primary election for state, state district, legislative, county and county district offices in the years in which those offices are elected; and

(d) On the second Monday of September preceding the general election or regular special election day in years in which a general election is not conducted.

Except for the names of those persons who are duly qualified to vote in the election, no name shall be permitted to remain on the registration and pollbooks; provided, however, that no name shall be erased from the registration books or pollbooks based on a change in the residence of an elector except in accordance with procedures provided for in Section 3 of Senate Bill No. ____, 1999 Regular Session. Except as otherwise provided by Section 23-15-573, no person shall vote at any election whose name is not on the pollbook.

(2) Except as provided in subsection (3) of this section, and subject to the following annual limitations, the commissioners of election shall be entitled to receive a per diem in the amount of Seventy Dollars ($70.00), to be paid from the county general fund, for every day or period of no less than five (5) hours accumulated over two (2) or more days actually employed in the performance of their duties for the necessary time spent in the revision of the registration books and pollbooks as required in subsection (1) of this section:

(a) In counties having less than ten thousand (10,000) qualified electors, not more than thirty-five (35) days per year;

(b) In counties having ten thousand (10,000) qualified electors but less than twenty thousand (20,000) qualified electors, not more than fifty (50) days per year;

(c) In counties having twenty thousand (20,000) qualified electors but less than fifty thousand (50,000) qualified electors, not more than sixty-five (65) days per year;

(d) In counties having fifty thousand (50,000) qualified electors but less than seventy-five thousand (75,000) qualified electors, not more than eighty (80) days per year;

(e) In counties having seventy-five thousand (75,000) qualified electors but less than one hundred thousand (100,000) qualified electors, not more than ninety-five (95) days per year;

(f) In counties having one hundred thousand (100,000) qualified electors but less than one hundred twenty-five thousand (125,000) qualified electors, not more than one hundred ten (110) days per year;

(g) In counties having one hundred twenty-five thousand (125,000) qualified electors but less than one hundred fifty thousand (150,000) qualified electors, not more than one hundred twenty-five (125) days per year;

(h) In counties having one hundred fifty thousand (150,000) qualified electors but less than one hundred seventy-five thousand (175,000) qualified electors, not more than one hundred forty (140) days per year;

(i) In counties having one hundred seventy-five thousand (175,000) qualified electors but less than two hundred thousand (200,000) qualified electors, not more than one hundred fifty-five (155) days per year;

(j) In counties having two hundred thousand (200,000) qualified electors or more, not more than one hundred seventy (170) days per year.

(3) The commissioners of election shall be entitled to receive a per diem in the amount of Seventy Dollars ($70.00), to be paid from the county general fund, not to exceed ten (10) days for every day or period of no less than five (5) hours accumulated over two (2) or more days actually employed in the performance of their duties for the necessary time spent in the revision of the registration books and pollbooks prior to any special election. For purposes of this subsection, the regular special election day shall not be considered a special election. The annual limitations set forth in subsection (2) of this section shall not apply to this subsection.

(4) Subject to the following limitations, the commissioners of election shall be entitled to receive a per diem in the amount of Seventy Dollars ($70.00), to be paid from the county general fund, for every day or period of no less than five (5) hours accumulated over two (2) or more days actually employed in the performance of their duties in the conduct of an election:

(a) In counties having less than ten thousand (10,000) qualified electors, not more than fifteen (15) days per election;

(b) In counties having ten thousand (10,000) qualified electors but less than twenty-five thousand (25,000) qualified electors, not more than twenty-five (25) days per election;

(c) In counties having twenty-five thousand (25,000) qualified electors but less than fifty thousand (50,000) qualified electors, not more than thirty-five (35) days per election;

(d) In counties having fifty thousand (50,000) qualified electors but less than seventy-five thousand (75,000) qualified electors, not more than forty-five (45) days per election;

(e) In counties having seventy-five thousand (75,000) qualified electors but less than one hundred thousand (100,000) qualified electors, not more than fifty-five (55) days per election;

(f) In counties having one hundred thousand (100,000) qualified electors but less than one hundred fifty thousand (150,000) qualified electors, not more than sixty-five (65) days per election;

(g) In counties having one hundred fifty thousand (150,000) qualified electors but less than two hundred thousand (200,000) qualified electors, not more than seventy-five (75) days per election; and

(h) In counties having two hundred thousand (200,000) qualified electors or more, not more than eighty-five (85) days per election.

It is the intention of the Legislature that the conduct of an election as required by law and as compensated in this subsection is a separate and distinct function from the purging and revision of the registration books and pollbooks as required by subsection (1) of this section and the compensation for those revisions provided by subsection (2) of this section.

(5) The commissioners of election shall be entitled to receive only one (1) per diem payment for those days when the commissioners of election discharge more than one (1) duty or responsibility on the same day.

(6) The county commissioners of election may provide copies of the registration books revised pursuant to this section to the municipal registrar of each municipality located within the county.

SECTION 8. The names of all electors whose registration has been cancelled pursuant to the provisions of Section 23-15-159 prior to the effective date of this act, shall be returned to the registration books and pollbooks and shall be treated in the same manner as electors who have changed their place of residence.

SECTION 9. Section 23-15-159, Mississippi Code of 1972, which requires that the names of persons who have not voted in at least one (1) election in the last four (4) successive years be erased from the registration books and pollbooks, is repealed.

SECTION 10. 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 11. 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.