House Bill 993

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 23-15-927, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT THE CIRCUIT COURT SHALL BE THE ONLY COURT IN WHICH AN INITIAL PETITION FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW OF AN ELECTION CONTEST FILED WITH A COUNTY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OR STATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE CAN BE FILED; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

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

SECTION 1. Section 23-15-927, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

23-15-927. When and after any contest has been filed with the county executive committee, or complaint with the State Executive Committee, and the said executive committee having jurisdiction shall fail to promptly meet or having met shall fail or unreasonably delay to fully act upon the contest or complaint, or shall fail to give with reasonable promptness the full relief required by the facts and the law, the contestant shall have the right forthwith to file in the circuit court of the county wherein the irregularities are charged to have occurred, or if more than one (1) county to be involved then in one (1) of said counties, a sworn copy of his said protest or complaint, together with a sworn petition, setting forth with particularity wherein the executive committee has wrongfully failed to act or to fully and promptly investigate or has wrongfully denied the relief prayed by said contest, with a prayer for a judicial review thereof. But such petition for a judicial review shall not be filed unless it bear the certificate of two (2) practicing attorneys that they and each of them have fully made an independent investigation into the matters of fact and of law upon which the protest and petition are based and that after such investigation they verily believe that the said protest and petition should be sustained and that the relief therein prayed should be granted, and the petitioner shall give a cost bond in the sum of Three Hundred Dollars ($300.00), with two (2) or more sufficient sureties conditioned to pay all costs in case his petition be dismissed, and an additional bond may be required, by the circuit judge * * *, if necessary, at any subsequent stage of the proceedings. The filing of such petition for judicial review in the manner set forth above shall automatically supersede and suspend the operation and effect of the order, ruling or judgment of the executive committee appealed from. The circuit court shall be the only court in which an initial petition for judicial review described in this section may be filed.

SECTION 2. 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 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.