Ferguson v. Williams

• Decision Date: 30 August 1971
• Docket Number: No. GC 7173.,GC 7173.
• Citation: 330 F. Supp. 1012
• Parties: James Earl FERGUSON et al., Plaintiffs, v. The Honorable John Bell WILLIAMS, Governor of the State of Mississippi, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Mississippi

330 F. Supp. 1012

James Earl FERGUSON et al., Plaintiffs, v. The Honorable John Bell WILLIAMS, Governor of the State of Mississippi, et al., Defendants.

No. GC 7173.

United States District Court, N. D. Mississippi, Greenville Division.

August 30, 1971.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

J. Wesley Watkins, III, Greenville, Miss., Barry H. Powell, Jackson, Miss., for plaintiffs.

William A. Allain, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, Miss., for defendants.

Before CLARK, Circuit Judge, and KEADY and SMITH, District Judges.

KEADY, District Judge:

This case presents the basic question of whether Mississippi's four-month registration requirement for voting in state and local elections as provided by its state constitution,¹ and statute,² violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. A second issue raised is whether this registration requirement abridges the right to vote of 18 to 20 year old Mississippi citizens in contravention of the Twenty-sixth Amendment.³

In their original complaint filed on July 8, 1971, plaintiffs began this suit as a class action only on behalf of Mississippi residents between 18 and 20 years of age who had failed to register by July 2, 1971, and alleged that they were allowed only two days after the adoption of the Twenty-sixth Amendment in which to register so as to qualify to vote in the 1971 statewide primary and general elections. Defendants named in the action were the State Board of Election Commissioners, consisting, by statute, of the governor, secretary of state and attorney general, and the circuit clerk who is also the county registrar, and election commissioners of Washington County. The county officcials were joined as class defendants representing county election officials in all of the state's counties.

By statute, the date of the 1971 first primary of a political party to nominate candidates for state and county offices (exclusive of judges) fell on August 3, with second primary on August 24,⁴ and general election to follow on November 2.⁵

Plaintiffs requested the convening of a three-judge district court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2281 and 2284 to enjoin, because of federal unconstitutionality, the enforcement of the state's constitutional and statutory requirements for four months registration in advance of the next general election. Plaintiffs on July 9 applied to a single judge of this court for a restraining order to extend the times for registering to vote in the August primary until July 20 and for the general election until October 20. This relief was refused.

On July 21 plaintiffs amended their complaint by broadening the plaintiffs' class to include all Mississippi residents otherwise qualified to vote in the 1971 state primary and general elections but for the fact that they failed to register before the July 2 deadline.

On August 5 a duly constituted three-judge court convened and conducted an evidentiary hearing. It received a stipulation of facts, oral and documentary evidence and heard arguments submitted by both sides.

The essential facts are undisputed. The named plaintiffs are qualified voters except for the fact that they failed to register on or before July 2. The circuit clerk of each county who serves as county registrar of elections initially determines if a person offering to register is qualified to do so and registers anyone so qualified. The state's aforementioned constitutional and statutory provisions concerning registration, as interpreted by the Mississippi Supreme Court⁶ and the state's attorney general and applied in practice throughout the state, provide that while a person may register at any time, he cannot vote in the state's general election unless he has registered at least four months prior thereto; that such registration is effective if he meets age and residency requirements as of the date of election although not at time of registration; and that he may vote in the intervening primary elections to nominate candidates for the general election only if he has registered four months or longer before the general election.

The November 1971 general elections in Mississippi are for all major state and county elective offices, including governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, superintendent of public education, all members of the state legislature and all major county elective offices, including boards of supervisors, sheriffs, clerks of the circuit and chancery courts, county and district attorneys, justices of the peace and constables. Since these elections are for four-year terms, no further elections for such offices shall occur in the next four years, except for special elections called to fill vacancies.

According to the 1970 official census, 1,373,145 persons 18 years of age or more reside in the state, including 130,180 in the 18 through 20 age bracket. 1,084,340 persons, or 79% of the state's potential voters, are currently registered as qualified voters, and this number includes 70,300 persons in the 18 to 20 year group who timely registered to participate in this year's state primary and general elections. Thus, an estimated 288,805 persons, including 59,880 who are 18 to 20 years old, failed to register by the July 2 deadline, which renders them ineligible to vote in the August primary and November elections. There is no data before the court to show how many of these persons failing to register would meet the state's other requirements for voter eligibility.

In Mississippi, the presently effective qualifications for voting in state and local elections, apart from registration, are: (1) United States' citizenship; (2) being 18 years of age or more (by force of the 26th Amendment); (3) residency in the state and county for one year and six months in the election precinct; and (4) not having been convicted of enumerated major crimes.⁷ Of course, the state's literacy test provided by Art. 12, § 244 of its constitution has been suspended by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and extended in 1970, 42 U.S.C. § 1973b.⁸ Plaintiffs make no attack upon any of the state's qualifications for franchise other than the four-months registration requirement.

Mississippi has a system of permanent registration of voters⁹ which is uniformly administered throughout the entire state. Registration books are maintained in the office of the circuit clerk of each county, in his capacity as voter registrar. This official is required to keep the registration books open at all times for registration by persons entitled to be registered, §§ 3211, 3212. Anyone denied an opportunity to register on the books may appeal from the registrar's decision of refusal to the county election commissioners, § 3224, and also obtain judicial review of an adverse determination by the commissioners, § 3227. Poll books for each election district are prepared from the registration records by the election commissioners who may be assisted by the registrar. These poll books show only the names of persons registering to vote four months or more prior to the next regular election, § 3232. At certain fixed times during the year,¹⁰ the election commissioners, who render only part-time service, meet at the registrar's office to revise the registration and poll books by erasing therefrom the names of all persons erroneously thereon, or who have died, removed or become disqualified as electors from any cause, and also by adding the names of all persons determined to have been illegally denied registration by the registrar.

The election commissioners have only limited duties with respect to the primary of a political party. They are furnished with separate primary election poll books prepared by the registrar and they periodically revise or purge these separate records which contain names of registered voters in the same manner as they revise the general election poll books, § 3112. While the primary election poll books are required to be used in primary, and all voters' names should appear thereon, nevertheless anyone claiming he is entitled to vote in the primary and has been illegally denied registration, may vote separately and have his ballot thus considered by the county executive committee of the political party conducting the primary, § 3114. Any qualified elector, provided he satisfies the requirement of party loyalty, § 3129, may vote in the primary election if he has registered at least four months prior to the general election for the officers to be nominated at the primary and not later than one month prior to the date of the first primary, § 3130.

Candidates offering for a primary election must qualify not later than 60 days before such primary and if they are qualified electors, their names shall be placed on the ballot by the party officials, § 3118. The ballot for the general election shall contain the names of all candidates who either have been put in nomination by a political party or have filed qualifying petitions to run as independents; in either case all names must be submitted not later than 40 days prior to the date of the general election, § 3260.

The testimony disclosed that local election officials charged with the duty of preparing accurate poll books and making other appropriate arrangements, need from four to six weeks to make ready for an orderly election. Although the registration records remain open for registration throughout the year, the county registrars and their staff customarily experience an increased amount of registration activity as the cutoff date approaches. Many people have a tendency to procrastinate and defer the simple act of registering, some remaining apathetic until candidates begin announcing for public office. This influx of last-minute registrants places an increased load of work upon registrars and election commissioners to correctly classify and place the new registrants in the two sets of poll books. Extra help is often employed to assist the election officials in discharging...