Request By:
Mr. Roger Williams
Chairman, Jessamine County
Board of Elections
P.O. Box 36
Nicholasville, Kentucky 40356
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of May 9 in which you relate that pursuant to KRS 89.290 and the filing of a petition thereunder seeking a vote on the question of terminating the commission form of government, the signatures attached to the petition were checked by the county board of elections against the registration records to determine whether or not they represented legal voters equal to 33 1/3% of the vote cast in the city at the preceding general election as required by said statute. In reviewing the petition, the board raises a number of questions concerning the counting of certain names falling under the following categories: (1) Those petitioners having addresses different from the addresses on the voter registration card, indicating a subsequent move to a new or different precinct within the city; (2) Those petitioners who are not registered voters; (3) Those petitioners who have been purged from registration; (4) Those petitioners who have signed the petition twice; (5) Those petitioners whose signatures are illegible; and (6) Those petitioners who are registered to vote in the county but outside of the city.
Aside from your questions concerning the proper method of counting the signatures, you raise the question as to what action should the board of elections, the county clerk or the county judge take if the number of disqualified petitioners would cause the petition to have an insufficient percentage to place the issue on the ballot.
To begin with, KRS 89.290 requires that the petition be signed by legal voters of the city, which means qualified and registered voters of the city.
Howell v. Wilson, Ky., 371 S.W.2d 627 (1963).
In answer to your questions, those registered voters who have moved their residence from one precinct to another within the city are still legally registered voters of the city and their signatures should be counted. On the other hand, petitioners who are not registered voters should not be counted. Also, those petitioners who have been purged should not be counted. As for those petitioners having signed the petition twice, only one of the signatures should be counted. As for those petitioners whose signatures that are illegible, they should not be counted though every reasonable effort should be made to identify the petitioner. And, of course, those petitioners who are registered voters outside the city should not be counted.
After reviewing the signature discrepancies of the petition in the manner suggested above, and if the number of signatures stricken reduces the percentage below that required by statute, the county judge should be informed of this fact by the board and he should issue an order refusing to accept the petition on the grounds that it does not comply on its face with the statutory requirements necessary to place the question on the November ballot.