Request By:
Ms. Judie Little
Deputy County Clerk
Boyd County Clerk's Office
Catlettsburg, Kentucky 41129
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of January 30 in which you present the following facts and question:
"We have had individuals inquire about changing their party affiliation and the effect it might have on their voting in the special election scheduled for our county March 10, 1979. They understand that making the change now will make them ineligible to vote in the primary but would like to know their standing regarding the election in March."
Under Kentucky election law, a registered voter may change bis party affiliation at any time the registration books are open. See KRS 116.045. However, if the voter changes his registration following the November election, he cannot vote in the May primary in view of KRS 116.055. This statute applies, of course, only to the May primary and, in effect, prohibits any voter who changes his affiliation subsequent to the November election from participating in the May primary as a legal voter for either major political party. This, of course, does not apply to new registrations made subsequent to the previous November election.
On the other hand, a change of political affiliation by a qualified voter is of no legal consequence with respect to his right to participate in any special or general election, which simply means that though a voter may be disqualified in the May primary from voting, he is not disqualified in participating in any special election, such as the local option election to be held in Boyd County on March 10, 1979. Neither, of course, would it affect his right to vote for any candidate of his choice of either party in the November election.