Senator F. Michael Gunn

*1 The Attorney General has received your request for an opinion and has assigned it to me for research and reply. Your query (attached) was whether the list of voters voting in party primaries in Rankin County was available under the Open Records Act, whether local officials are required to respond in a timely manner and what recourse you have if the records are available under the Open Records Act and local authorities refuse to comply.

*1 In response to your first question, the information you seek is not exempt from the Public Records Act. The pollbooks used in a particular election are public records and must be made available to the public. The pollbooks will have the word “voted” opposite the name of each voter who cast a ballot in the election. See Mississippi Code Annotated, Section 23–15–545 (Revised 1990).

*1 The “receipt booklet” which contains the signatures of each voter who voted is required to be locked and sealed in the ballot box along with the used and unused ballots and certain other materials. See MCA 23–15–591. The “receipt booklets” therefore are, in our opinion, not subject to the Public Records Act.

*1 We note that the 1994 primaries included congressional primaries and that such materials from elections involving federal offices must be preserved for a period of twenty-two (22) months following the election. See 42 USCA 1974.

*1 In response to your second question, the county registrar is required to make the pollbooks containing the information sought available within one (1) day after a written request is made, unless the county board of supervisors has provided by proper order that county officials may take up to fourteen (14) working days to respond to such requests. See MCA 25–61–5.

*1 If a public official refuses to comply with a proper request in a timely manner, the person denied the record may institute suit in the chancery court of the county in which the public body is located. See MCA 25–61–13.