Request By:
Ms. Martha Warren
Box 9
Springfield, Kentucky 40069
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of March 14, concerning a vacancy that has been created in Washington County in the office of magistrate in which you raise a number of questions concerning the manner in which this vacancy is to be filled, particularly where redistricting is involved.
Assuming that the vacancy occurred more than 70 days before the primary, anyone seeking party nomination must file a notification and declaration paper with the county clerk not later than March 30. If more than one seeks party nomination from the same party, a primary must be held to determine the party nominee for the November election. If only one candidate files, there can be no primary and he is automatically nominated. See KRS 118.115 and 118.185. Of course, any person can file as an independent under KRS 118.315 not later than September 15, which is the 55 day deadline before the general election as provided in KRS 118.365(3), as amended in 1982.
KRS 67.045, the redistricting act, enacted in 1982, requires each county to redistrict its magisterial districts which becomes effective immediately upon the passage of an appropriate ordinance on the part of the fiscal court. However, such redistricting does not affect those magistrates who were elected and are presently serving irrespective of the fact that they may be placed in a district other than the one from which they were elected. On the other hand, any vacancy that occurs in one of the old districts, irrespective of boundary changes which may in turn require changes of precinct lines, must be filled at the coming November election for the unexpired term. Magistrates are not elected from precinct but are elected from the district and candidates to fill the vacancy in the old district must live within that district and within the boundary of the new boundary lines drawn for the district created by the reapportionment. We are enclosing copies of OAG 83-40 and 82-617 covering this subject.
If, however, candidates desiring to run for the vacancy no longer live in the old district as drawn by reapportionment which changes the boundary lines of the district, they are not qualified to run. On the other hand, if a candidate is placed in the old district by virtue of a change in the district's boundary line, he is automatically qualified under the terms of KRS 61.015. As we said above, precinct lines have no legal significance in reapportionment or in the election of officers from a particular district except that the County Board of Elections must realign any precinct line that bisects a newly drawn magisterial district line.