Mississippi Code 1972 (2023) › Title 23 - ELECTIONS (§§ 23-NEW-NEW-001 — 23-17-61) › Chapter 15 - MISSISSIPPI ELECTION CODE (§§ 23-15-NEW — 23-15-1111) › Article 7 - ELECTION OFFICIALS (§§ 23-15-211 — 23-15-273) › Section 23-15-213 - [Effective 1/1/2025] Election of county election commissioners

(1)
There shall be elected five (5) election commissioners for each county whose terms of office shall commence on the first Monday of January following their election and who shall serve for a term of four (4) years. Each of the commissioners shall be required to attend a training seminar provided by the Secretary of State and satisfactorily complete a skills assessment, and before acting, shall take and subscribe the oath of office prescribed by the Constitution. The oath shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the chancery court. Upon filing the oath of office, the election commissioner may be provided access to the Statewide Elections Management System for the purpose of performing his or her duties. Such skills assessment shall only be required once every four (4) years. While engaged in their duties, the commissioners shall be conservators of the peace in the county, with all the duties and powers of such.
(2)
(a)
At the general election in 2024 and every four (4) years thereafter, the qualified electors of the board of supervisors' Districts One, Three and Five shall elect in their district one (1) election commissioner.
(b)
At the general election in 2023 and every four (4) years thereafter, the qualified electors of the board of supervisors' Districts Two and Four shall elect in their district one (1) election commissioner.
(c)
No more than one (1) commissioner shall be a resident of and reside in each supervisor's district of the county; it being the purpose of this section that the county board of election commissioners shall consist of one (1) person from each supervisor's district of the county and that each commissioner be elected from the supervisor's district in which he or she resides.
(3)
Candidates for county election commissioner shall qualify by filing with the clerk of the board of supervisors of their respective counties a petition personally signed by not less than fifty (50) qualified electors of the supervisor's district in which they reside, requesting that they be a candidate, by 5:00 p.m. not later than February 1 of the year in which the election occurs and unless the petition is filed within the required time, their names shall not be placed upon the ballot. All candidates shall declare in writing their party affiliation, if any, to the board of supervisors, and such party affiliation shall be shown on the official ballot.
(4)
The petition shall have attached thereto a certificate of the county registrar showing the number of qualified electors on each petition, which shall be furnished by the registrar on request. The board shall determine the sufficiency of the petition, and if the petition contains the required number of signatures and is filed within the time required, the president of the board shall verify that the candidate is a resident of the supervisor's district in which he or she seeks election and that the candidate is otherwise qualified as provided by law, and shall certify that the candidate is qualified to the chair or secretary of the county election commission and the names of the candidates shall be placed upon the ballot for the ensuing election. No county election commissioner shall serve or be considered as elected until he or she has received a majority of the votes cast for the position or post for which he or she is a candidate. If a majority vote is not received in the first election, then the two (2) candidates receiving the most votes for each position or post shall be placed upon the ballot for a second election to be held four (4) weeks later in accordance with appropriate procedures followed in other elections involving runoff candidates.
(5)
In the first meeting in January of each year, the county election commissioners shall organize by electing a chair and a secretary, who shall serve a one-year term. The county election commissioners shall provide the names of the chair and secretary to the Secretary of State and provide notice of any change in officers which may occur during the year.
(6)
It shall be the duty of the chair to have the official ballot printed and distributed at each general or special election.
Derived from 1972 Code §§ 23-5-3 [Codes, 1871, §§ 340 et seq.; 1880, § 121; 1892, § 3602; 1906, § 4108; Hemingway's 1917, § 6742; 1930, § 6177; 1942, § 3205; Laws, 1968, ch. 568, § 2; Laws, 1978, ch. 431, § 1; Laws, 1979, ch. 359, § 1; repealed by Laws, 1986, ch. 495, § 335]; Laws, 1986, ch. 495, § 55; Laws, 2000, ch. 592, § 2; Laws, 2009, ch. 437, § 1, eff. 8/4/2009 (the date the United States Attorney General interposed no objection under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965).
Amended by Laws, 2024, ch. 513, SB 2144,§ 3, eff. 1/1/2025.
Amended by Laws, 2022, ch. 351, HB 1331,§ 1, eff. 1/1/2023.
Amended by Laws, 2021, ch. 392, HB 1048,§ 2, eff. 7/1/2021.
Amended by Laws, 2018, ch. 399, HB 937,§ 1, eff. 7/1/2018.
Amended by Laws, 2017, ch. 441, HB 467, 38, eff. 7/1/2017.
This section is set out more than once due to postponed, multiple, or conflicting amendments.