North Dakota Advisory Opinions October 24, 1947: AGO 47-109 (October 24, 1947)

Advisory Opinion Text

RE: Separate Municipalities Must Hold Separate Elections

Your letter of October 17, 1947, addressed to the attorney general, has been received and contents noted.

You state that the Fargo city commission and the board of education of the city of Fargo are tentatively planning to schedule a joint bond election at the time of the regular city election in April, 1948. The city plans to issue bonds for storm sewers and also secure permission to levy for a building fund. The board of education is interested in issuing bonds for a building construction program.

From the information in your letter there will be two elections held on the same day. One will be an election of the Independent School District voting on a bond issue, the other election is by the city of Fargo also voting on a bond issue. These are two separate elections held in two separate municipalities, and there will necessarily have to be two separate election officers for each election. The Independent School District has its polling places which you state are six in number; the city has its polling places, thirty-two in number.

I do not believe that you could combine these elections in any way, and therefore it would be necessary for the voters in the school district to go to the polling places established for the school district and also that the voters of the city of Fargo should go to the polling places established for the city election. The procedure in the matter of issuing bonds is rather technical and, therefore, it would be necessary to comply with every statutory requirement.

NELS G. JOHNSON Attorney General