Mississippi Advisory Opinions September 08, 2000: AGO 000013957 (September 8, 2000)

AGO 000013957.

Dear Mr. Wilson:

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

Mississippi Code Annotated Section 67-1-11 provides for the filing of a petition for an election on whether or not the sale, distribution and possession of alcoholic liquors shall be permitted in the county. It provides that the election shall be held on a date fixed by the order of the board of supervisors and that the date of the election shall not be more than sixty (60) days from the date of the filing of said petition. On Friday, August 18, 2000 I received some, but not all, petitions regarding this matter. Please advise when the sixty (60) day period begins.

In response, Mississippi Code Annotated, Section 67-1-11(2) provides in part:

Upon presentation and filing of a proper petition requesting same signed by at least twenty percent (20%) or fifteen hundred (1,500), whichever number is the lesser, of the qualified electors of the county, it shall be the duty of the board of supervisors to call an election at which there shall be submitted to the qualified electors of the county the question of whether or not the sale, distribution and possession of alcoholic liquors shall be permitted in such county as provided in this chapter. Such election shall be held and conducted by the county election commissioners on a date fixed by the order of the board of supervisors, which date shall not be more than sixty (60) days from the date of the filing of said petition. ....

Section 67-1-13(1) provides in part:

When this chapter has been made effective and operative in any county as a result of an election called and held as provided in Section 67-1-11, the same may be made ineffective and inapplicable therein by an election called and held upon a petition filed with the board of supervisors requesting same signed by at least twenty percent (20%) or fifteen hundred (1500), whichever number is the lesser, of the qualified electors of the county as is otherwise provided in Section 67-1-11, all of the provisions of which shall be fully applicable thereto. ...

Pursuant to the above quoted statutes, it is clear that local option petitions are to be filed with the board of supervisors. The delivery of petitions to you for the purpose of determining how many qualified electors have signed said petitions does not constitute a proper filing with the board of supervisors.

Therefore, in response to your question, it is our opinion that the sixty (60) day period specified in Section 67-1-11(2) begins to run at the time the petitions are properly filed with the clerk of the board of supervisors.

Sincerely,

MIKE MOORE

ATTORNEY GENERAL

By: Phil Carter

Special Assistant Attorney General

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