MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

2000 Regular Session

To: Apportionment and Elections

By: Representative Denny

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 23-15-139, 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 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 or a family member of the voter;

(b) At the written request of the person who is currently residing at the voter's listed address;

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

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

(e) By death of the voter; or

(f) 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.

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) If the voter has not changed his or her address of legal residence or has changed his other address of legal residence but resides within the same 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) If the return form is not returned and the voter does not vote or does not appear to vote by the second federal general election thereafter, the voter's name will be removed from the voter registration books.

(iii) If the voter has changed his or her address of legal residence to a location outside of 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 month. 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, 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; or

(iii) Changes his or her voter registration to another location 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 than 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, identifying voters who may have registered more than once in the same 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. 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 8. 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 9. The Attorney General of the State of Mississippi shall 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 10. 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.