Request By:
Honorable Arnold Turner, Jr.
Attorney at Law
South Lake Drive
Prestonsburg, Kentucky 41653
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 17 in which you raise the following question:
"My office has had the question propounded as to whether or not a voter seeking to vote in the May primary who needs assistance may have a person of his choosing accompany him into the voting booth. "
The answer to your question would be in the affirmative as provided in KRS 117.255(1) pertaining to assistance to be given to physically disabled voters. We particularly refer you to subsection (2) which permits a voter to be assisted in voting if he signs an oath that by reason of inability to read English, or by reason of blindness or other physical disability he is unable to vote without assistance. Generally, upon making and filing with the judges such an oath, the voter retires to the voting machine with the judges, and one of the judges in the presence of the other operates the machine as the voter directs. On the other hand, if the disabled voter prefers, he can be assisted by a person of his own choice, and in this respect we quote the following excerpt 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. . . ."
We trust the above answers your question.