Request By:
Mr. A. G. Miller
Chairman, Todd County
Board of Elections
Elkton, Kentucky 42220
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of September 22 in which you refer to House Bill 27 currently freezing any change in election precinct boundaries and raise the following questions:
#1 What should the Todd County Board of Elections do concerning this matter?
#2 Can a partisan candidate be blocked off of a voting machine that has two magististerial districts candidates on it?
#3 How much allowance does the county board have in equalizing the number of registered voters for each precinct?
In response to your initial question House Bill 27 [now coded as KRS 117.057] requires county boards of elections to maintain the current boundaries of election precincts until the end of the 1982 regular session or upon the termination of an intervening extraordinary session enacting reapportionment and redistricting legislation. Thus, under normal circumstances the Todd County Board of Elections cannot change precinct boundaries regardless of whether or not magisterial district lines are bisected.
You enclose, however, an Order issued by the Todd Circuit Court recognizing the effect of House Bill 27 but at the same time declaring that certain precincts in the county be realigned by reason of the fact that the court had previously ordered such changes prior to the effective date of House Bill 27. The board has thus been ordered to redraw the precincts in accordance with the March 31, 1980 court order and the county board of elections should, of course, comply with this order unless an appeal is or has been taken to the Court of Appeals.
In response to your second question [which you have clarified by phone] the voting machines in those precincts splitting a magisterial district boundary line whereby there will be candidates running in the precinct from two (2) different magisterial districts, the voting machine must be set so that it can be locked to prevent a voter from voting for a magisterial candidate running from a district in which the voter does not reside. Prior to the election, the clerk must mark the precinct list to show which voters are entitled to vote in each of the two magisterial districts within the precinct so that the election clerk can inform the precinct judge operating the machine how to lockout one magisterial candidate or the other when the voter enters the booth to vote.
In response to your third question, House Bill 340 amending KRS 117.055 pertaining to the size of election precincts reads in part as follows:
". . . Without exception they shall review the boundaries of all election precincts exceeding seven hundred (700) votes cast in the last regular election prior to each primary election. Consideration to the division of said election precincts should be based on the anticipated growth factor within the specified boundaries; however, the county board of elections shall not be prohibited from dividing election precincts in excess of seven hundred (700) votes cast in the last regular election or less than seven hundred (700) votes cast in the last regular election if they elect to do so. . . ." (Emphasis added).
The above amendment, together with a 1976 amendment, declares that the size of the precincts be based on the number of votes cast at the last regular election rather than the number of registered voters within the precinct. At the same time, the 700 maximum votes per precinct has been deluded by now permitting precincts to exceed this number.