Request By:
Honorable Benjamin J. Lookofsky
Graves County Attorney
Graves County Court House
Mayfield, Kentucky 42066
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of September 29 in which you raise the following question:
". . . We have a voting precinct in Graves County, in which we are unable to locate a polling place. Please advise what must be done in order to set up a polling place in a precinct which has none. In this particular precinct, the old polling place can no longer be used and no other place can be found within the boundaries of the precinct."
KRS 117.065, concerning the establishment of voting places for election precincts, requires the county board of elections to establish a voting place for each precinct. Though this statute previously used the word "in" instead of "for" it would still appear that the voting place established for a particular precinct should be located therein if at all possible. At the same time, this statute does permit the county board the authority to draw precinct lines so as to enable more than one precinct to vote at one particular location and we have interpreted this provision to permit the establishment of a voting place in an adjacent precinct that is on or near the adjoining precinct line thereby serving both precincts. Reference OAG 77-554, copy attached.