Request By:
Mr. Harold E. Johnson
208 Pomeroy Street
Grayson, Kentucky 41143
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of recent date in which you relate that you were one of thirteen candidates that ran in the May primary election for city council of the City of Grayson. Seven of the candidates apparently filed independent petitions, each with the signatures of twenty or more qualified voters, none of which signed more than one petition. At the same time, a candidate for mayor and six other candidates for council had their papers signed by the same individuals. The question is raised as to whether or not the filing papers of the mayor and the six candidates were valid.
It is our understanding that the City of Grayson elected to conduct its city elections pursuant to KRS 83A.170 which calls for a special nonpartisan city primary. Under this statute our office has taken the position in OAG 81-54, copy enclosed, that candidates in this special primary must file separate petitions and no qualified voter can sign more than one petition with reference to each candidate. These statutory requirements are peculiar to this type of election and would not apply under the general independent petition section, namely, KRS 118.315.
Under the circumstances, our response to your question would be that the filing papers of the mayor and the six candidates were contrary to the requirements of KRS 83A.170. However, assuming that the validity of their petitions was not challenged before the primary, they cannot be challenged thereafter, as pointed out in the case of