Request By:
Honorable C. A. Noble, Jr.
Perry County Attorney
Court House
P.O. Box 707
Hazard, Kentucky 41701
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of June 24 concerning the assistance that may be rendered illiterate and disabled voters. Your particular questions are as follows:
"Who is allowed in the voting booth and/or machine behind the curtains since it is my opinion of the law that only the Judge's are allowed to watch under such circumstances.
"Also is it proper for the challenger to watch the voting?
"Also has this challenger got a right to watch each and every disabled voter vote during the whole course of the day while the voting is going on?"
Pursuant to KRS 117.255 a disabled voter may receive assistance from the two precinct judges and no one else by executing an oath as required therein. The disabled voter has the right however to designate a person of his own choice other than the judges to assist him, in which case only the person so designated is permitted in the voting booth with the disabled voter. Such person must of course execute the oath the same as the disabled person. You will note the following quotation from the referred to statute:
". . . The disabled person applying to vote may, if he prefers, be assisted by a person of his own choice who is not an election officer. The clerk shall swear the person accompanying the disabled or blind voter to operate the voting machine in accordance with the directions of the disabled or blind voter, and the disabled or blind voter and the person sworn shall then enter the voting booth and the one so sworn shall operate the machine for the disabled or blind voter as he directs. . . ."
Challengers are appointed pursuant to KRS 117.315 and are entitled to stay in the voting room or at the door but in no event can they enter the voting booth to observe the voter casting his vote. A challenger can of course observe the voter signing the registration record, check the signatures and may of course challenge the qualifications of a voter but he cannot interfere with the voting procedure. See KRS 117.245. We might also point out that this office has taken the position that a disabled voter may select a challenger as the person of his choice to assist him in casting his vote under the terms of KRS 117.255 (2). Reference OAG 77-205 attached.