Honorable F. B. Caudle 

County Attorney 

Franklin County 

Mt. Vernon, Texas Opinion Mmber O-1303 

Ret Does the~Board of Trustees 

have authority to designate polling places in bond elections for 

Dear Sir: an independent school district? 

We are in receipt of your opinion request and quota from your 

letter as follows: 

"In an election to determine the issuance of bonds 

for an independent school district wholly within a Justioe 

Precinct and containing the entire city limits of a toam, by 

an order of the Board of Trustees ordering the election, the 

courthouse was designated as the only polling place. The 

Justioe Precinct in which the independent sohool district 

was located had four voting precinots. All the votes in the 

independent sohool district election were cast in eleation 

Precinct k. 2. 

"First: In view.& Artiale Six, Se&ion Three-A of 

the Constitution, would any of the votes be counted 

exoept those residing in Precinat No. 21 

"Secondr Article 2708, R.S. 1926 authorizes the 

Board of Trustees to designate the polling plaaes 

and the order~did designate the courthoWe a8 the 

polling plaoe; would Article Six, Section Three-A 

of the Constitution, or Article 2768, R.S. 1926 

dontrol?" 

Article 6, Se&ion Sa of the Constitution reads p8 fOlloWat 

%hen an election is held by aqy county, or any 

number of aountiss, or any political subdivision 

of the State, or my political subdivision of a 

county, or any defined district nov? or hereafter 

to bs described and defined within the State and 

which may or may not include tams, villages or 

munioipal corporations, or any city, town or village, for the purposs of issuing bonds or otherwise lending oredit, or expending money or 
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Hon. F. B. Caudle - Page 2 (0-13X) 

assming any debt, only qualified eleotors 

who own taxable property in the State, oounty, 

political subdivision, district, city, tom or 

village where such eleotion is held, and who 

have duly rendered the same for taxation, 

shall be qualified to vote and all electors 

shall vote in the election precinct of their 

residenoer* 

Article 2788 reads, in part, as follows: 

* e . * The election for said bonds shall be held within thirty days after order of election, as fixed in the 

eleotion order. The board of trustees shall at the seme 

time fix the polling plaoes for holding such election 

and name a judge and tm clerks at each polling place 

" . . . 

A11 independent school districts are created for free school 

purposes aud their affairs arc managed by a board of trustees. The Constitution provides that in all bond elections the electors shall vote in the 

election precinct of their residenoe. There is no provision in the Constituticnr which expressly prohibits the Legislature from providing.that when 

a defined territory is incorporated into en independent school district it 

shall constitute an eleotion precinot for all elections held for school 

purposes8 and in the absence of an express provision in the statute, authoriaing such districts to that effect, we think it will be implied from the 

very nature of the case that it was so intended. 

We are therefore of the opinion that for the purpose of voting 

on the iesumoe of bonds or for the purpose of voting oa all questions 

affecting the interest of the public sohools within en independent school 

&&riot, such territory legally constitutes a residence voting preoinct 

&thin the meaning of the Constitution, the polling plaoes to be desi&ated 

by the school~tnretees as provided in Artiole 2788* See Parks et alvs. 

West, 108 S.W. 466. 

But if we are mistaken in this view of the law in holding that 

an independent school district oonstitutes a re.idenoe voting precinct in 

detemining whether or not bonds should be issued and polls should have 

been opened at all four voting precincts within the district,we feel oertain that the courts would not invalidate the election where the board of 

trustees, whose duty it is to designate the voting places, made an error 

in naming only one, unless it bc show that they acted with a fraudulent 

purpose. 

It is a canon of the election law that an election is not to.be 

set aside for a mere formality or irregularity which oan not,bc said iu any 
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Hon. F. B. Caudle - Page 3 (o-1303) 

manner to have affected the result of the election. Courts are enxious 

rather to sustain than to defeat the popular will. Dillon Xunicipal Carporations, Fifth Ed., Vol. 1, p. 642. 

Corpus Juris states the rule as follows: "That where the 

polling place selected by the proper officers is outside the election district vho vote thereat arc not disfrsnchised on that account if the eleotion is otherwise lawfully conducted. Evenwhcre the Constitution of the 

State restricts the right to vote to the election distfiot wherein the 

elector resides, yet where a distinction between an eleotion district and 

an election precinct is recognized, votes cast at a polling place outside 

of the precinct but within the district arc not to be rejected." 20 Corpus Juris, 102; Davis vso State, 12 S.W. 857; Ex parte Stein, 135 S.1. 136. 

In Ek p6rte Write, 28 S.K 542, the election precincts of a 

tom were laid off from the aourthouse sE(uarc, the courthouse not being included in any ofthem, the votes wsre cast in different roaas of the courthouse, the court held that the Constitution, Article 6, Section 2, providing that electors should vote in the precinct of their residence, did not 

invalidate the election. 

In view of the foregoing, it is.our opinion that the votes 

of all the legally qualified voters of the school district voting at the 

plaoe designated asthe polling place by the board of trustees should be 

counted. 

Very truly yours 

ATT0RNE.i GENERAL OF +JXXAS 

By 

s/Claud 0. Bootlxaan 

Claud 0. Boothman 

Assistant 

COB:sregw 

APPBOVED SEP. 1, 1939 

s/Gerald C. Mann 

ATTOFUJEX GENKW, OF TEXAS 

Approved Opinion Committee 

By EWE Chairman