Request By:
Mr. John B. Nichols
Boyle County Clerk
Danville, Kentucky 40422
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You have a problem concerning the Boyle County Library District. Its chief source of income is its special ad valorem tax. It needs more funds for expansion of its physical facilities and services. Consequently, the district board members and other friends are circulating petitions requesting the raising of the tax rate to a specific figure. The petition form sets out blanks for the personal signature of the individual registered voter, the address, and date signed.
You understand that when finished and accepted by the fiscal court, the petition will be turned over to you, as county clerk, for verification of signatures. Actually, under KRS 173.610(1), the petition of qualified and registered voters is filed directly with you as county clerk. And if the petition is legally sufficient, as described in the statute, you, as clerk, must cause the question to be prepared to be presented to the voters of the library district.
Your question is: What constitutes an acceptable signature of such petitioners?
We assume the petition is filed pursuant to KRS 173.610. See KRS 173.610(2) for an increase limit. As relates to the signatures of voters, a reasonable comparison of signatures would suffice. Thus a person named Alice K. Jones could sign as Mrs. John Jones if the handwriting appears to be by the same person. However the comparison may go, you as clerk must finally satisfy yourself that the petitioners are in fact qualified voters under § 145, Kentucky Constitution, and registered voters of the district at the precise time they sign the petition. Note that the term "qualified voters" is used consistently in KRS 173.470 and 173.610. See §§ 145 and 147, Kentucky Constitution; Coffey v. Anderson, Ky., 371 S.W.2d 624 (1963); and Howell v. Wilson, Ky., 371 S.W.2d 627 (1963). Thus you must be reasonably certain of identification of a petitioner, but as a qualified and registered voter of the district at the time they sign the petition to get it on the ballot.
As concerns the address and date, ditto marks would be acceptable where the two parties can be identified under the conditions listed above.