Bill Text: MS HB57 | 2024 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Disenfranchising crimes; clarify those that qualify as.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2024-03-05 - Died In Committee [HB57 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2024-HB57-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2024 Regular Session
To: Constitution; Judiciary B
By: Representative Karriem
House Bill 57
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 23-15-19, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CLARIFY THAT ONLY THOSE SPECIFIC CRIMES LISTED IN SECTION 241, MISSISSIPPI CONSTITUTION OF 1890, SHALL BE DISENFRANCHISING; TO PROHIBIT THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FROM INTERPRETING, THROUGH OPINION OR OTHERWISE, ANY CRIME OTHER THAN THOSE LISTED IN SECTION 241, MISSISSIPPI CONSTITUTION OF 1890, AS DISENFRANCHISING; TO PROVIDE THAT NO PERSON WHO LOST THE RIGHT TO VOTE BECAUSE HE OR SHE WAS CONVICTED OF ANY CRIME INTERPRETED AS DISENFRANCHISING IN AN ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINION SHALL CONTINUE TO BE DISENFRANCHISED; TO AMEND SECTIONS 23-15-11 AND 23-15-151, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CONFORM TO THE PRECEDING SECTION; TO BRING FORWARD SECTION 97-39-3, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, FOR THE PURPOSE OF POSSIBLE AMENDMENT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Section 23-15-19, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
23-15-19. Any person who
has been convicted of * * * any crime listed in Section 241, Mississippi Constitution
of 1890, such crimes defined as "disenfranchising," shall not be
registered, or if registered the name of the person shall be removed from the
Statewide Elections Management System by the registrar or the election
commissioners of the county of his or her residence. Notwithstanding any
other provision of law to the contrary, only those specific crimes listed in
Section 241, Mississippi Constitution of 1890, shall be disenfranchising, and
the Attorney General is not authorized to interpret, through opinion or
otherwise, any other crime as disenfranchising. From and after the passage of
this act, no person who lost the right to vote because he or she was convicted
of any crime interpreted as disenfranchising in an Attorney General opinion
shall continue to be disenfranchised. Whenever any person shall be
convicted in the circuit court of his or her county of a
disenfranchising crime, the county registrar shall thereupon remove his or her
name from the Statewide Elections Management System; and whenever any person
shall be convicted of a disenfranchising crime in any other court of any
county, the presiding judge of the court shall, on demand, certify the fact in
writing to the registrar of the county in which the voter resides, who shall
thereupon remove the name of the person from the Statewide Elections Management
System and retain the certificate as a record of his or her office.
SECTION 2. Section 23-15-11, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
23-15-11. (1) Every inhabitant of this state, except persons adjudicated to be non compos mentis, shall be a qualified elector in and for the county, municipality and voting precinct of his or her residence and shall be entitled to vote at any election upon compliance with Section 23-15-563, if he or she:
(a) * * * Is a citizen of the United States of
America * * *;
(b) Is eighteen
(18) years old and upwards * * *;
(c) Has resided
in this state for thirty (30) days and for thirty (30) days in the county in
which he or she seeks to vote, and for thirty (30) days in the incorporated
municipality in which he or she seeks to vote * * *;
(d) Has been
duly registered as an elector under Section 23-15-33 * * *; and
(e) * * * Has never been convicted of * * * any crime listed in Section
241, Mississippi Constitution of 1890 * * *.
(2) If the thirtieth day to register before an election falls on a Sunday or legal holiday, the registration applications submitted on the business day immediately following the Sunday or legal holiday shall be accepted and entered in the Statewide Elections Management System for the purpose of enabling voters to vote in the next election.
(3) 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 before the primary election associated with the general election, may vote in the primary election even though the person has not reached his or her eighteenth birthday at the time that the person seeks to vote at the primary election.
(4) No others than those specified in this section shall be entitled, or shall be allowed, to vote at any election.
SECTION 3. Section 23-15-151, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
23-15-151. The circuit
clerk of each county is authorized and directed to prepare and keep in his or
her office a full and complete list, in alphabetical order, of persons
convicted * * * of any crime listed in Section 241, Mississippi
Constitution of 1890. A certified copy of any enrollment by one clerk to
another will be sufficient authority for the enrollment of the name, or names,
in another county. A list of persons convicted of * * * any crime listed in Section 241,
Mississippi Constitution of 1890, * * * shall also be entered into the Statewide
Elections Management System on a quarterly basis. Voters who have been
convicted in a Mississippi state court of any disenfranchising crime are not
qualified electors as defined by Section 23-15-11 and shall be purged or
otherwise removed by the county registrar or county election commissioners from
the Statewide Elections Management System.
SECTION 4. Section 97-39-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is brought forward as follows:
97-39-3. If any person shall fight a duel, or give or accept a challenge to fight a duel, or knowingly carry or deliver such challenge or the acceptance thereof, or be second to either party to any duel, whether such act be done in the state or out of it, or who shall go out of the state to fight a duel, or to assist in the same as second, or to send, accept, or carry a challenge, shall be disqualified from holding any office, be disenfranchised, and incapable of holding or being elected to any post of honor, profit or emolument, civil or military, under the constitution and laws of this state; and the appointment of any such person to office, as also all votes given to any such person, are illegal, and none of the votes given to such person for any office shall be taken or counted.
SECTION 5. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.
