Request By:
Mrs. Judy Long Witt
Montgomery County Clerk
Mt. Sterling, Kentucky 50353
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of February 12 in which you raise the question as to whether candidates for nomination in a primary election for the office of county commissioner can be nominated at large or must they be nominated from their respective districts.
The answer to your question is that they must be nominated from districts. Of course, county commissioners are elected from the county at large at the general November election pursuant to KRS 67.050 and § 144 of the Constitution; however, with respect to party nomination in the primary, such is controlled by subsection (3) of KRS 67.060, which reads as follows:
"Persons seeking the nomination of a political party as candidate for the office of county commissioner shall, where a primary election is required for such political party, be voted upon exclusively by the eligible voters of the district in which the person resides and seeks to represent. Persons seeking the nomination of a minor political party, persons who file as independent candidates or persons seeking the nomination in counties containing cities of the second class shall not be subject to the provisions of this paragraph. They shall be nominated by the voters of the entire county."
The above section applies to primary elections of major parties in all counties except those containing cities of the second class.
Under the circumstances, any candidate who desires to seek party nomination in the primary for the office of county commissioner in your county must be nominated exclusively by the eligible voters of the district in which he resides and seeks nomination. Of course, in the November election though he runs from his district, he is voted upon by the county at large.