Request By:
Ms. Margaret Vandy
Deputy Clerk
Laurel County Court
P.O. Box T
London, Kentucky 40741
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of December 1 in which you request an opinion concerning the duty and responsibility of the county court clerk to turn over the applications for absent ballots when requested by the state police following the election but before the expiration of the 30-day period thereafter.
In answer to your question, we initially refer you to KRS 117.085 (2) which provides that the clerk shall retain the absent voter's application until thirty (30) days after the election. In our opinion this statute clearly imposes a duty on the clerk to keep in his custody the absent voters' applications during said period unless he is directed to release them to someone's custody by a court order or where they are placed under the court's jurisdiction in a contest suit.
Of course, while in the custody of the clerk, such applications are public records, subject to the scrutiny of any citizen in the clerk's office during normal working hours.
Under the circumstances, the clerk should not turn over the absent voter applications to any one, including the state police, unless he is presented with a court order directing him to do so.