Request By:
Hon. Michael R. Greene
Nold, Mosley, Clare, Hubbard & Townes
Fifth Floor
The Hart Block Building
730 West Main Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of January 7 in which you on behalf of the Jefferson County Sheriff who automatically serves as a member of the County board of elections, request an opinion concerning the following:
"What procedure, if any, should the County Board of Elections and/or the Sheriff, who is a candidate for re-election or election to a different post, do to follow the letter and spirit of KRS 117.035?"
The answer to your question is found under the terms of KRS 117.035 which provide that no member of the county board of elections can continue to serve when he becomes a candidate to be voted on at an election which, of course, includes both the primary and November election. The statute further provides and we quote, "Where from any cause the county clerk or sheriff cannot act, the two (2) appointed members shall appoint a commissioner to serve during the period the county clerk or sheriff is ineligible."
Under the circumstances, if and when the sheriff becomes a candidate for nomination in the May primary, either at the time he files his notification and declaration papers or prior to that time where he or a committee in his behalf receives or expends funds to further his candidacy as provided in KRS 121.015(7), he becomes disqualified from serving on the board. At this point in time the two party members which are those appointed by the state board, must select someone to serve in his place during the time of his ineligibility. Of course if the two appointed members cannot agree within five days on a substitute the state board pursuant to KRS 117.035 shall immediately appoint someone to serve during the sheriff's ineligibility.