Request By:
Mr. James P. Benassi
Attorney at Law
116 West Main Street
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of March 23 in which you relate that you have been retained by a number of state merit employees who wish to vote at the Democratic County Caucus in Franklin and other counties. Under the circumstances you raise the following question:
"Under the Merit System Law, can Kentucky Merit System employees attend and vote for the Presidential candidate of their choice at the Democratic County Caucuses to be held on Saturday, March 31st, in Franklin and other counties?"
Our response to your question would be in the affirmative. KRS 18A.140(4) governing the political activity of merit employees prohibits such employees from becoming members or officers of any national, state or local committee or partisan political club or from taking part in the management or affairs of any political party or any political campaign except that as employees may exercise their right to express their opinion and to vote.
In OAG 60-1183 we specifically held that a merit employee could attend party meetings and participate in the selection of committeemen and committeewomen. As to the reasons for reaching this conclusion, we quote the following excerpt from the opinion:
"We believe that KRS 18.310 (now 18A.140) was designed to prohibit pernicious political activity on the part of classified employees and prohibit them from holding party offices and participating in political campaigns. This statute does not, on the other hand, nor was it intended to prohibit, we believe, a classified employee from attending of his own free will, his party's meetings and casting his vote in the election of his party committeemen and committeewomen so long as such attendance is without force or coercion from any source. Certainly the statute was not designed nor intended to stifle or inhibit party participation by classified employees by forbidding them from attending party meetings and voting for their local party committee leaders who represent the foundation of the party itself.
It is also noted that in OAG 76-245, we held that a merit employee may cast a vote for a delegate at a state convention of the Kentucky Democratic Women's Club.
The selection of delegates to the Democratic National Convention to which you refer generally starts at the county convention level. At the county convention, registered voters of the party congregate in groups called caucuses on behalf of each qualified candidate for presidential nomination, and vote to elect a number of delegates to which each caucus of voters is entitled to be represented. Thus all the merit employees would be allowed to do is to attend the party meeting and exercise their voting privilege to elect delegates to the next highest convention, the state congressional party convention.
Under the circumstances, we are of the opinion that state merit employees may voluntarily attend a county party convention and vote for their choice of delegates to the state congressional convention, without jeopardizing their merit positions under the terms of KRS 18A.140(4).
That portion of OAG 72-340 concerning the voting rights of merit employees at party meetings and conventions is withdrawn.