Lowndes County Circuit Clerk Haley Salazar said obtaining a marriage license usually takes less than a half hour.
“Basically, you just have to show an official ID, fill out the application and pay the $22 fee,” Salazar said. “Then we turn around and issue the license. It used to be that you had to wait three days for a blood test, but that requirement isn’t on the books anymore. Now, it takes about 25 minutes.”
That might not initially be the case for same-sex couples should a U.S. District judge grant a preliminary injunction against the state’s constitutionally-approved ban on same sex marriage, however.
Instead of minutes, it could take several days for the first same-sex couples to get a marriage license, Salazar said.
“That might be the case here in Lowndes County,” Salazar said. “We use a software program and we will have to get our programmers to change some language in the application. The state also has language on its forms that would probably have to be adjusted. We send the application to the Bureau of Vital Statistics in Jackson for approval, so I would assume we would have to hear back from them. If that’s accurate, it would probably take us a few days to get everything changed over.”
Testimony in Campaign for Southern Equality vs. Gov. Phil Bryant ended on Nov. 12, with U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves saying he would rule on case at a later time.
The Campaign, which along with two lesbian couples from Mississippi, asked for a preliminary injunction of the state’s same-sex marriage ban, which has been on the books since 1997. Mississippi residents also approved a 2004 constitutional amendment against gay marriage.
Salazar said she has received a couple of inquiries about same-sex marriage licenses over the past few weeks.
“We had a call about it around Halloween and another call last week,” said Salazar, who said in a typical week, she issues fewer than 10 marriage licenses.
“It varies,” she said. “Some weeks, we’ll only have one or two. Other weeks we might do 10. May and June are the busiest months, but we issue a lot of marriage licenses in December, too. It’s hard to predict numbers, though.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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