Request By:
Honorable Bill Klapheke
Barren County Attorney
Courthouse -- Second Level
Glasgow, Kentucky 42141
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of May 9 in which you refer to the provisions of KRS 117.085 governing absent voting and raise the question as to whether or not the clerk can hand deliver the absent ballot to the voter if he takes a receipt for it or can it be hand delivered without a receipt.
KRS 117.085(2) contains the following excerpt:
"(2) If the county clerk finds that the voter is properly registered as stated in his application, he shall immediately mail to the voter a special ballot, . . ." (Emphasis added).
The above statute clearly requires that the clerk mail to the voter his absent ballot and we would construe that as a mandatory requirement. See KRS 446.010(29), and the case of
Ragan v. Burnett, Ky., 306 S.W.2d 281 (1957).
Under the circumstances, the county clerk cannot hand deliver any absent ballot but must mail all such ballots to the voter.