Request By:
Anna Marie Baker, Clerk
Powell County Court
Courthouse
Stanton, Kentucky 40380
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of August 29, 1979 in which you relate that the jailer elected in November, 1977 resigned around July, 1978 when the present incumbent was appointed to fill this vacancy. The initial question is raised as to whether or not the office will have to be filled in the coming November election.
Section 152 of the Constitution would require the vacancy in question to be filled this November for the unexpired term as there is a state-wide election embracing the area in which the vacancy occurred. See Smith v. Ruth, 308 Ky. 60, 212 S.W.2d 532 (1948).
The incumbent jailer who was apparently nominated unopposed in the May, 1979 primary was correct in filing as his name is the only one that will appear on the general election ballot this fall for the unexpired term. Since the vacancy in question occurred on or before July 5, 1978 any one who desired to have his name placed on the November ballot in 1979 would have had to have either run in the May primary of this year or filed an independent petition no later than fifty-five days before the primary as required by KRS 118.365(3).
As a consequence the individual in question will have no opposition on this ballot in November for the office of jailer, however, as you know, any qualified voter can "write-in" the name of his choice and any so-called "write-in" candidate for the office can campaign for the office in question.
You next relate that you have received a recall petition apparently involving the levy of a utility tax for schools that is to be placed on the November ballot. You desire to know who is responsible for wording the ballot in question.
A utility tax recall petition to which you apparently refer is found under KRS 160.957. Under subsections (1) and (2) it is provided such a petition is to be presented to the county board of elections and the county board shall submit the question as to whether the tax shall be levied in such a manner as to permit the voters to respond either "for" or "against." This statute would indicate (though it is not clear as to who actually formulates the question) that it is the responsibility of the county board to do so with, of course, the assistance of the county clerk who acts as chairman of said board.