Request By:
Senator Doug Moseley
Box 365
Columbia, Kentucky 42728
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General regarding a petition for a local option election concerning alcoholic beverages. You ask if the petitions are open records under the Kentucky Open Records Law, KRS 61.870-61.884; can the names on the petitions be published; is there any liability for disclosure of the records and does a person have any legal recourse if his name is made public after signing the petition.
Besides the Open Records Law, the statute which has a bearing on your question is KRS 242.020 which provides, in part, as follows:
"(1) A petition for an election shall be signed by a number of constitutionally qualified voters of the territory to be affected, equal to 25 percent of the votes cast in the territory at the last preceding general election. The petition may consist of one or more separate units, and shall be filed with the county clerk.
"(2) The petition for election, in addition to the name of the voter, shall state also his post office address and the correct date upon which his name was signed.
"(3) No signer may withdraw his name or have it taken from the petition after the petition has been filed. If the name of any person has been placed on the petition for election without his authority, he may appear before the county court before the election is ordered and upon proof that his name was placed on the petition without his authority, his name may be eliminated by an order of the court. When his name has been eliminated, he shall not be counted as a petitioner."
It is our opinion that a petition for a local option election is a public record and may be inspected by any person. The petition may be published in a newspaper or in any other manner, including the names of the persons who signed the petition.
Unless a person purported to have signed a petition has had the court declare that his name was placed on the petition without the person's authority and should therefore be removed, we believe that the person has no legal recourse if his name is made public as a signer of the petition and there is no liability for the disclosure of the petition and the names thereon.