Request By:
Mr. Mike Jones
Meade County Court Clerk
Brandenburg, Kentucky 40108
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 11 in which you request an opinion concerning the following:
"I. The procedure for candidate to get name on primary ballot.
"II. If a candidate fails to file his notification and declaration papers can his name be legally placed on the ballot."
In order for a candidate to have his name placed on the May primary ballot, he must file a notification and declaration paper on the form prescribed by the State Board of Elections pursuant to KRS 118.125. This form requires the affidavit of two reputable electors who are members of the party to which the candidate belongs. The notification and declaration paper must have been filed not later than fifty-five (55) days before the May primary, which was March 30, in accordance with the requirements of KRS 118.165. The filing deadline was mandatory and, unless a candidate filed on or before March 30, it would be too late for him to file at any subsequent time. See
Lewis v. Mosley, 215 Ky. 573, 286 S.W. 793 (1926).
Failure to file within the prescribed time mentioned above prohibits any candidate from having his name placed on the primary ballot. Such candidate can however run as a "write-in" candidate for the November election.
We might add for your information that candidates for city offices under the councilmanic form of government may of course file as independents not later than fifty-five (55) days before the November election even though they may have been entitled to run in the May primary for party nomination. However, independent candidates for county offices would have had to have filed by the March 30 deadline, the same as party candidates.