Mississippi Advisory Opinions September 26, 2003: AGO 2003-0513 (September 26, 2003)

Advisory Opinion Text

Walter Brown, Esquire

Attorney for City of Natchez

Post Office Box 1185

Natchez, Mississippi 39121

Re: Relocation of Polling Place

Dear Mr. Brown:

Attorney General Mike Moore has received your letter of request and assigned it to me for research and reply. Your letter states:

The Mayor and Board of the City of Natchez is considering the relocation of one of its polling places to the local Elks Club Lodge. The reason for moving is that the present location is on a busy highway and there are questions of public safety getting in and out of the polling place.

After looking for another public polling place site, and being unable to find anything suitable, the Board has inquired of the officers of the local Elks Club Lodge to see if a portion of its facility can be used for the conduct of the municipal election and specifically for the use of the site as a polling place for one of our city wards. The Elks Lodge has the advantage of being centrally located and more easily accessible to voters driving their vehicles onto the site and is handicap accessible. Two questions have arisen regarding the proposed change, to wit:

1. The Lodge has an ABC on-premise license as well as a beer license;

2. The payment of a reasonable rental.

Could you please advise this office as to whether a polling place may be in such a facility and what parameters other than reasonableness could be used to establish a rental for use of the facility? We would, of course, submit this matter to the United States Justice Department if and after it is adopted.

In response to your first question, we find no law that would prohibit a municipality from using a facility that has an ABC on-premise license and a beer license as a polling place.

In response to your second question, Mississippi Code Annotated Section 23-15-171 (3) (Revised 2001) provides:

All primary elections in municipalities shall be held and conducted in the same manner as is provided by law for state and county primary elections.

Section 23-15-173 (2) provides:

All municipal general elections shall be held and conducted in the same manner as is provided by law for state and county general elections.

Section 23-15-259 authorizes county boards of supervisors to acquire polling places for the conduct of county and state elections. Based on the above quoted statutes we are of the opinion that the provisions of Section 23-15-259 are applicable to municipal governing authorities in regard to municipal primaries, special and general elections. It provides in part:

Said boards are also authorized, by order spread upon the minutes of the board setting forth the cost and source of funds therefor, to purchase improved or unimproved property and to construct, reconstruct, repair, renovate and maintain polling places or to pay to private property owners reasonable rental fees when the property is used as a polling place for a period not to exceed the day immediately preceding the election, the day of the election, and the day immediately following the election and to allow such reasonable sum as may be expended in supplying voting compartments, tables or shelves for use at elections.

Based on the above quoted statute, the standard for the payment of rent for the use of a polling place is reasonableness. The municipal governing authorities may consider any factors deemed appropriate in arriving at an amount they deem to be reasonable.

Sincerely,

Mike Moore Attorney General.

Phil Carter Special Assistant Attorney General.