Request By:
Mr. John A. Cottrell
Deputy Clerk
Scott County Clerk's Office
Georgetown, Kentucky 40324
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of August 25 in which you enclose a ballot application form for a disabled voter. With respect to this form you raise several questions concerning the retention of the physician's certificate by the clerk and whether or not the clerk should send an application form to the disabled voter in subsequent elections where his disability is continuing.
If a disabled voter's verified statement [doctor's statement] attached to the application indicates a continuing disability under the terms of KRS 117.075, the voter need not obtain a verified statement from the doctor for subsequent elections in order to qualify for a disabled voter's ballot but, on the other hand, the voter must, of course, file the disabled voter's application form for an absent ballot at subsequent elections and thereon state that a doctor's statement has been previously filed indicating that the disability is continuing.
When the clerk receives the disabled voter's ballot containing the doctor's verified statement, regardless of whether it indicates that the voter's disability is expected to continue or that it is temporary, the clerk must detach the statement and keep it on file for future elections. In any event and regardless of whether the disability is continuing or not, the disabled voter, as we previously said, must make a new application for a ballot each year on the state form and must request the form in writing, by appearing in person, or by phone in the manner permitted for requesting application forms for absent ballots generally under KRS 117.085.