Request By:
Mr. Bremer Ehrler
Jefferson County Court Clerk
Court House
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of April 5 in which you present the following facts and questions:
"There will be an election for Mayor and 6 (six) councilmen in the Fourth Class City of Jeffersontown in November and Petitions of Nomination are already being filed for these offices.
"KRS 118.215(2) is specific about the device being requested going to the first who select it, but not so specific about the title.
"1) If six offices are up for election and seven people or more wish to file, all wanting the same title, does it go to the first six who file or can they all use the same title?
"2) If they can all designate the same title, can they all use the same device also or only the first six to file?
"I have another question on a different phase of the election.
"3) We've been advised that due to certain changes in the law, Circuit Judges are no longer to sit as an appeal board on election day. If this is so what avenue of appeal, if any, do people have if the County Board of Elections rules that they are not entitled to vote that day?"
In response to questions 1 and 2 we are enclosing a copy of OAG 76-275 wherein we point out that regardless of how independent candidates for city office file their petition pursuant to KRS 118.215 (2) [which permits them to select a name and party device under which they will be listed on the ballot] , subsection (3) [as amended in 1976] requires all independent candidates to be listed on the November ballot in a single [nonpartisan] column under the office they seek in the order determined by lot without any name or party designation. For your information, subsection (3) as amended in 1976 reads as follows:
"(3) The ballots used at any election in which city officers are to be elected as provided in subsection (2) of this section shall contain the names of candidates for such city offices grouped according to the offices they seek, and such candidates shall be immediately arranged under and beneath the title of office such candidates seek. The order in which the names of the candidates for each office are to be printed on the ballot shall be determined by lot. Each group of candidates for each separate office for which such candidates are to be elected shall be separated from the preceding or succeeding groups by a line transversing the entire ballot and spaced so as to avoid confusion on the part of the voter."
Thus, regardless of how the independent city candidates file, either by group or individually, and irrespective of whether they designate a title and device, they must be listed in conformance with subsection (3) of KRS 118.215 as pointed out in OAG 76-275. However, to answer your question, we believe that not only the title but the device goes to the first candidate or group of candidates [ticket] filing under subsection (2) though in the end it is of no significance in view of subsection (3) of KRS 118.215.
In response to your third question, we refer you to KRS 117.035 (4), which reads as follows:
"(4) The board shall meet at least once a month and may meet more frequently if necessary. The board shall stay in session on election days to correct clerical errors and rule on questions regarding voter registration and are authorized to make to the election officers such certifications as may be necessary. On said days appeals may be made to the county judge or circuit judge, as the case may be, except that in cities of the first class all appeals shall be made to a circuit judge."
You will note from the above quote that on election day appeals may be made to the county judge or circuit judge, except in cities of the first class all appeals shall be made to a circuit judge.
The above subsection was amended at the Extraordinary Session in 1976 [Ch. 14, § 129], effective January 2, 1978, to remove appeal to the county judge. Subsection (4) will then read as follows:
"(4) The board shall meet at least once a month and may meet more frequently if necessary. The board shall stay in session on election days to correct clerical errors and rule on questions regarding voter registration and are authorized to make to the election officers such certifications as may be necessary. On said days appeals may be made to a circuit judge." (Emphasis added).