Request By:
Hon. Woodrow Wilson
Metcalfe County Judge-Executive
Metcalfe County Courthouse
Edmonton, Kentucky 42129
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter raising questions concerning the office of the county clerk. The county clerk died on July 5, 1979, and on July 10, 1979, you appointed a person to fill the vacancy pursuant to KRS 63.220 which authorizes the county judge-executive to fill such a vacancy by appointment until a successor is elected, as provided in Section 152 of the Kentucky Constitution, and qualified.
You ask whether your appointment will extend for the remainder of the unexpired term or whether an election must be held in November of this year. If an election is required, you ask what method candidates from the political parties or independents must use to get their names on the ballot.
Section 152 of the Kentucky Constitution provides in part:
". . . If the unexpired term will not end at the next succeeding annual election at which either city, town, county, district or state officers are to be elected, and if three months intervene before said succeeding annual election at which either city, town, county, district or state officers are to be elected, the office shall be filled by appointment until said election, and then said vacancy shall be filled by election for the remainder of the term. . . ."
The next succeeding annual election at which either city, town, county, district or state officers are to be elected is November 6, 1979. The county clerk's unexpired term does not end in 1979 and more than three months will intervene between the clerk's death (July 5, 1979) and the November election (November 6, 1979). Therefore, an election must be held on November 6, 1979, to fill the vacancy in the county clerk's office for the remainder of the term. See OAG 78-200, copy enclosed.
In connection with the methods which the two major political parties and the independents can use to get the names of their candidates on the ballot, we direct your attention to OAG 79-312, copy enclosed. The major political parties may, pursuant to KRS 118.115, make nominations according to their party rules for the November election. The meetings to select party nominees may be held at any time providing the nominee is selected and a nominating petition (no set form required) is filed with the county clerk not less than fifty-five (55) days before the November election as required by KRS 118.365(2). The deadline for filing such nominations would be not later than September 12, 1979.
Any person, regardless of his party affiliation, may file an independent nomination petition for the November election as authorized by KRS 118.375 within the same time period mentioned above. Such a petition for a county-wide office must contain the signatures of not less than one hundred (100) petitioners pursuant to KRS 118.315 and is to be filed on the form prescribed by the State Board of Elections for all independent candidates.