Can someone run for Youngsville police chief if they moved into the city less than a year before candidate qualifying?

Plain-English summary

A prospective Youngsville police-chief candidate had lived outside the city until August 2023. He leased an apartment in Youngsville and changed his voter registration that month, after taking earlier steps toward selling his former home and building one in the city. Qualifying for the special election was set for July 17 through 19, 2024. The Lafayette Parish clerk of court asked whether he could qualify.

The attorney general said he could not. Louisiana law required an elected municipal police chief to have been domiciled in the municipality for at least the immediately preceding year when qualifying as a candidate. The opinion accepted that the prospective candidate appeared to be an elector, but treated the one-year domicile requirement as separate. On the facts supplied, he had not lived in Youngsville before August 2023, less than a year before the July qualifying dates.

The opinion explained that domicile means habitual residence and requires both residence and an intent to remain. Earlier plans to move, buy land, or build a home did not establish Youngsville domicile before he resided there.

What this means for you

Municipal police-chief candidates

The opinion measured the one-year domicile period backward from candidate qualifying, rather than election day. It found the described candidate ineligible for the July 2024 qualifying period because he did not reside in Youngsville until August 2023.

Clerks and election officials

The opinion distinguished being a registered elector from meeting the separate duration of domicile required for this office. It concluded the potential candidate appeared to meet the elector requirement on the stated facts, but failed the one-year requirement.

Youngsville voters

The opinion concerned one candidate's qualification for a specific special election. It did not decide whether the candidate could qualify for a later election after a full year of Youngsville domicile.

Common questions

Q: Is registering to vote in Youngsville enough to qualify for police chief?
A: No. The attorney general said this person appeared to be an elector, but still needed a full year of domicile in Youngsville before the candidate-qualifying period.

Q: Could buying a lot in the city start the one-year clock?
A: The opinion said domicile requires residence as well as intent to remain. The candidate bought a lot in April 2023 but, on the facts given, did not reside in Youngsville until August 2023.

Q: Is the one-year period measured from the election or from qualifying?
A: From qualifying. The opinion applied the statute's requirement that a police-chief candidate already have a year of municipal domicile at the time of qualification.

Q: Did the attorney general say this person was not a Youngsville voter?
A: No. The opinion said he appeared to meet the definition of an elector. The disqualifying issue was the shorter period of municipal domicile.

Background and statutory framework

The candidate's qualifying dates were July 17, 18, and 19, 2024. The request described a home listing outside Youngsville, an April 2023 purchase of city land, an August 2023 apartment lease, and an August 28 voter-registration change. The opinion accepted that the candidate's city residence began no earlier than August 2023.

La. R.S. 33:385.1 required an elected municipal police chief to be an elector and to have been domiciled in the municipality for at least the immediately preceding year at candidate qualifying. The opinion cited elector qualifications under La. R.S. 18:101 and the rule in La. R.S. 18:451 that office qualifications, including a required length of residence or domicile, must be met as of qualifying. It used Louisiana Civil Code articles on habitual residence and domicile to explain why plans to move did not replace actual residence.

Citations and references

• La. R.S. 33:385.1 (municipal police-chief qualifications)
• La. R.S. 18:101 (elector residence)
• La. R.S. 18:451 (qualifications as of candidate qualifying)
• La. C.C. art. 39 (one domicile)
• State v. Dauzat, 843 So.2d 526, 529 (La. App. 3 Cir. 4/2/03) (voter and elector)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinion/Download/24-0050

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain; the linked PDF is authoritative.

STATE OF LOUISIANA
DEPAWFMEN1’ OF JLsrIcE
Ovvicr ov TIlE Arioixi:y GENERAL
P.O. Box 94005
BAoN Rouui:, LA
70804—9005

Liz V[i.ruIII,
ArroIN1Y GENEJIAI.
May 30, 2024
OPINION 24-0050

27 ELECTIONS
Honorable Louis J. Perret
La. R.S. 33:385.1
La. R.S. 18:451
Lafayette Parish Clerk of Court La. CC. art. 38 La. CC. art. 39
La. CC. art. 45
800 South Buchanan Street
Lafayette, Louisiana 70501
The potential candidate in question would need to have been
domiciled in the municipality for at least one year prior to the time of qualification for the election for chief of police.

Dear Mr. Perret,

Our office received your opinion request regarding the qualifications for a potential candidate for Chief of Police for the City of Youngsville. In your request, you ask whether a potential candidate who lived outside the city of Youngsville until August 2023 meets the qualifications to be a candidate for Chief of Police for a special election in which the qualifying dates have been setforJuly 17, 18, and 19, 2024. Forthe reasonsthatfollow, we find that the potential candidate you have described in your request cannot meet the qualifications to be a candidate in this election.
In your request, you provided the following facts. The potential candidate executed a “Right to Sell Listing Agreement” to sell his home located outside the City of Youngsville on February 9, 2023. He subsequently purchased a lot in the City of Youngsville on April 14, 2023, to build a home. ln late 2023, he hired a contractor to build the home, with an expected completion date of June 2024. In August 2023, the potential candidate executed a lease agreement for an apartment in the City of Youngsville pending the completion of his home, and on August 28, 2023, he changed his voting registration to his new address in Youngsville. Since then, he has voted three times in Youngsville elections.
You state in your request, “It is clear based on the foregoing that the individual is an elector and is in [fact] domiciled in the City of Youngsville commencing in 2023.” You then ask if the individual is qualified to seek election as the Chief of Police pursuant to La. R.S.
33:385.1 contending that any doubt as to the qualifications of a candidate for office ,

should be resolved in favor of allowing that candidate to run for office. See Land/ak v.
R/chmond, 2005-0758 (La. 3/24/05), 899 So.2d 535, 541.
Louisiana Revised Statute 33:385.1 (A) establishes the qualifications for a police chief and reads, in pertinent part:
Except as otherwise provided in this Section, an elected chief of police of a municipality shall be an elector of the municipality. At the time of

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OPINION 24-0050
Honorable Louis J. Perret
Page 2
qualification as a candidate for the office of chief of police, he shall have been domiciled for at least the immediately preceding year in the municipality (Emphasis added).
. . . .

First, the law requires a police chief to be an elector of the municipality. The qualifications of an elector are provided for in La. R.S. 18:101 (A)(1), which requires that an elector be “an actual bona fide resident of this state, and the parish, municipality, if any, and precinct in which he offers to register as a voter.” In Louisiana law, the “terms voter and elector are synonymous.” State v. Dauzat, 2002-1373 (La. App. 3 Cir. 4/2/03), 843 So.2d 526,

529. Based on the facts you have provided, it appears that this potential candidate meets
     the definition of an elector.
     Whether the potential candidate meets the one-year domicile requirement is another question. Forpurposes ofyourinquiry, the critical provision ofLa. R.S. 33:385.1(A) is the requirement that the potential candidate hold the qualifications of office, including one- year domicile, at the time of qualification. Qualifying dates for the November 5, 2024 election are set for July 17-19, 2024.1 Based upon the information you provided, the potential candidate did not reside in Youngsville prior to August 23, 2023, and cannot be said to have been domiciled in Youngsville before that date. In defining “domicile” Louisiana Civil Code article 38 states, in pertinent part, that “[t]he domicile of a natural person is the place of his habitual residence.” The following article, La. C.C. art. 39, states that “[a] natural person may reside in several places but may not have more than one domicile.” A person’s domicile is his principal establishment wherein he makes his habitual residence and essentially consists of two elements, namely residence and intent to remain in place. McClendon v. Bel, 2000-201 1 (La. App. I Cir. 9/7/00), 797 So.2d 700, 704. Absent the residential component, a person cannot claim to have established domiciled in a given place. You ask whether the language of La. R.S. 33:385.1 may be interpreted to allow the individual seeking office to have been domiciled in Youngsville for less than one full year prior to qualifying for office. The clear language of La. 33:385.1 requires the candidate to have been domiciled “for at least the immediately preceding year in the municipality.” This language is clear and unambiguous and requires that a candidate for chief of police of a municipality must have been domiciled in the municipality for at least one full year prior to qualifying for the office. As such, the potential candidate described in your opinion request, who did not reside in the municipality until August 2023, does not meet the qualifications to be a candidate in the election with qualifying dates set for July 17, 18, and 19, 2024.2

1 https://www.sos.la.gov/ElectionsAndVoting/PublishedDocuments/ElectionsCalendar2024.pdf 2 We further call your attention to La. R.S. 18:451, which provides, in pertinent part:

A person who meets the qualifications for the office he seeks may become a candidate and be voted on in a primary or general election if he qualifies as a candidate in the election.

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_____

OPINION 24-0050
Honorable Louis J. Perret
Page 3

We hope that this opinion has adequately addressed the legal issues you have raised. If our office can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

With best regards,

LIZ MURRILL
ATTORNEY GENERAL

BY:
Jftter N. Fa/rar
‘‘Assistant Atforney General

LM: HNF

Except as otherwise provided by law, a candidate shall possess the qualifications for the office he seeks at the time he qualifies for that office. In the event that the qualifications for an office include a residency or domicile requirement, a candidate shall meet the established length of residency or domicile as of the date of qualifying, notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary.