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### Aaso GENERAL
OF XAS

AUSTIN 1%TEXAS

FVILL WILSON **A ’** **ITORNEY ‘** **3IENERAL**

HonorableWeldon Cabaniss County Attorney Aransas County Rockport, Texas

Dear Mr. Cabaniss: day 2, 1960

OpinionNo. WW-832

Re: Whether the Aransas County Tax Collector may issue 'voting"poll tax receipts to certain residentsof Aransas County under the facts stated.

Your request for an opinion is based on the following fact situation:

The city of Aransas Pass is situatedpartly In Aransas County and partly In San PatriciaCounty. Each of these counties levies the 25-cent county poll tax. During the poll tax payment periodwhich ended on January 31, 1960, the Tax Collector of San Patricia Countyhad a deputy stationed In Aransas Pass,within theportion lying in San Patricia County, for the purpose of receivingpoll tax payments and issuing receipts therefor. Several residentsof Aransas Pass, who were subject to payment of the 1959poll tax and who at all times pertinent to this opinionhave lived within the portion of the city lying in Aransas County, paid their poll tax in the sum of $1.75 to this deputy, before February 1, andwere issued San PatriciaCounty poll tax receipts. The deputyhas made the following statement in connectionwith the issuanceof these receipts:

"Iwas under the impression that I could issue poll tax receipts to all residentsof the City of Aransas Pass otherwise qualified and without regard as to whether residents of Aransas or San Patrlcio County. I Issued to personswho toldme they lived in AFansas County, as I thought I was authorizedto do so. The acceptance of payments from residents of Aransas County did not come to the attentionof the San Patricia Collectoruntil after February 1. He Is ready to deliver over to the Aransas County Collector themoney receivedHonorable Weldon Cabaniss,page 2 (WW-832)

from the Aransas County residents,but the Aransas County Collector inquireswhether there Is anymanner by which this can be legally accomplished,and the individuals thereby franchised in Aransas County. QUESTION: Under these facts, are these individuals entitled to vote in Aransas County in the primary, general and other elections, for the year 1960; and if not, is there anymeans of transferringthe poll fees from San Patricia County to Aransas County to entitle these persons to vote in Aransas County?
ArticleVI, Section 2 of the Constitutionprovides:
'* * * any voter who is subject to pay a poll tax under the laws of the State of Texas shallhave paid said tax before offering to vote at any election in this State and hold a receipt showing that said poll tax was paid'before the {irat day of February next preceding such election.

.nthe county inwhich the taxpayer levy. Payment of the tax in some for the state tax of $1.50; but the county ,ndpayment in some The poll tax is payable in the county inwhich the taxpayer resided on January 1 preceding its levy. Payment of the tax in some other countywill suffice for the state tax of $1.50; but the county taxmust be paid in the countywhere it is due, and payment in some other countywill not entitle4 the taxpayer to vote. Sava e v.

go;.(N:9c~~8A~~x;"9:~j~~c~~~~; vy;Ew;ri17 um;h;l;s,,,;;8 (Tex,Ci;,App:1925), In orderOto qualify the taxpayer ?or voting, the money in payment of the tax and the informationnecessary for filling out the receiptmust have been delivered to the tax collector or an authorized deputy (Tex.Civ.App.1913pf'~~,~"is~~"~"~~r~~sD~?S~W.~$% ~~~x?C!~.:~~. 1948, error ref. n.r.e.). The tax colleitormay issue a ' voting" poll tax receipt after January 31 if the taxpayerhas done all that is required of him in paying the tax before that date;but the receipt must be stamped "Holdernot entitled to vote" if the tax is not paid to him until after January 31" Parkerv. Busby, 170 S.W. 1042 (Tex. Civ.App. 1914); Art. 5,12, Election Code.

The Aransas County Tax Collectorhad not authorized this deputy to act for him, and the deputywas neither a de ure nor a de facto officer for Aransas County. Payment to the sn h-atricio ZpKthough made In the mistaken belief by the taxpayer and by the deputy that the deputy could accept payment for Aransas County residents, did not fulfill the requirement for payment in the countywhere the tax was due. The faet that all parties acted in good faith, or that the deputygave erroneous advice to the taxpayersunder a misapprehension of the law, does not change the result. Davis v. Riley, supra.Under the foregoing authorities,we are constrained to hold payment of the poll tax that these individualsdid not make timely that was due in Aransas County, and there is no way by which theymay lawfullyvote on the receipts issued by the San Patricia deputy or by which the Tax Collectorof Aransas Countymay now issue Aransas County receipts entitling them to vote In the 1960 elections. Honorable Weldon Cabaniss,page 3 (WW-832)

SUMMARY
Where residentsof a countywhich levies a county poll tax were subject to payment of the poll tax and paid theirpoll tax for the year 1959 to the deputy of another county in themistaken belief that the deputy was authorized to accept the payments, and themoney was not delivered to the tax collector of the county of their residenceprior to February 1, 1960, there had not been a timelypayment of the tax and there is no way by which thesepersonsmay lawfullyvote in the 1960 elections.

Yours very truly,

WILL WILSON AttorneyGeneral of Texas

Mary K. Wall Assistant
MKW:bh
APPROVED:
OPINION COMMITTEE Morgan Nesbitt, Chairman Houghton Brownlee, Jr. J.C. Davis, Jr. Riley Eugene Fletcher J. Arthur Sandlin

REVIEWED FOR THE ATTORNEYGENERAL BY: Leonard Passmore