VIDALIA, La. – Life is good in the Miss-Lou on Election Day.

Students do not go to school in most Louisiana parishes — including Concordia, Catahoula and Tensas — on that day because it counts as a school holiday.

And adults also have special privileges. If you are going to or coming from voting, you’re exempt from most misdemeanor arrests. But as far as anyone knows, you can still purchase liquor.

Those provisions are perhaps the most striking examples of lesser-known election laws and policies in Mississippi and Louisiana.

A Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secretary Education policy makes a federal Election Day a school holiday in that state.

A BESE committee ruled 19 parishes that are having classes that day could not be penalized for doing so, but local parishes are not having classes that day.

&uot;That makes sense in a way, because so many schools are used as polling places, so it might be easier just to not have school that day,&uot; said Warren Ponder, spokesman for the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees elections in that state.

A lesser-known law gives adults special privileges on Election Day, too.

According to Louisiana’s revised statutes, &uot;while going to and returning from voting and while exercising the right to vote, an elector shall be privileged from arrest, except for felony or breach of the peace.&uot;

But despite rumors to the contrary, it seems you can buy liquor Tuesday.

&uot;I&160;think it used to be a law that you couldn’t sell it on Election Day, but we can now,&uot; said Charles Davidson, owner of Davidson’s Package Store in Natchez.

Other strange election statutes include one in Mississippi that includes &uot;timber larceny&uot; on the list of crimes for which a person, if convicted, can lose the right to vote.

&uot;It seems kind of odd to us now, but that’s the way they worded it back then&uot; in the 1800s, said Bob Barrett, chairman of the Adams County Election Commission.

Despite having attended several classes on election laws and reading through the state’s book of election laws many times, Concordia Parish Clerk of Court Clyde Ray Webber said he cannot recall any glaring examples of strange voting laws.

&uot;I&160;don’t doubt that Louisiana has probably had its share of odd or obscure election laws in the past — I&160;just can’t think of any,&uot; Webber said.

Webber and Barrett believe that when the federal government thoroughly revamped election laws, it did away with most outdated statutes.

&uot;I think they probably cleaned most of that up,&uot; Barrett said.