Request By:
Ms. Lucie Nelson
President, Richmond
League of Women Voters
Rt. 2 Old Towne Square
Richmond, Kentucky 40475
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of January 28 in which you relate that in 1979 the Madison County Board of Elections purged 450 names on the voter registration lists from Campus Precinct 6A which consists of Eastern Kentucky University campus and included both students and permanent residents. However, no notice was given to the individual voters. Under the circumstances, you raise the following questions:
"1) Is a voter considered purged if the County Board of Elections does not send him a letter of notification?
"2) What is the registration status of those 450 voters whose names were removed without notification? Have they been purged or have they retained registration status?
"3) If these voters are illegally purged, what actions must they take to be reinstated? Whose responsibility is it to correct the situation - the Board's or the voter's?
"4) If those voters who believed themselves to be registered signed a petition which required signatures of registered voters, would their signatures on that petition be valid?
"5) Does the State have any guidelines on the handling of precincts with transient populations?"
KRS 116.125 requires the county board of elections to notify any registered voter that his name will be purged unless he protests within thirty (30) days. This statute is of course mandatory, and if proper notice is not given, then the name should be restored to the registration list so that the referred to statute can be complied with. If the board refuses to do so, then any voter affected can bring a mandamus action to require the board to conform initially to the notification statute. However, unless the names in this instance are reinstated by the board through its own motion or by court order, the voters so purged will have to reregister in order to be deemed a qualified voter. The above answers your first three questions.
The answer to your fourth question would be in the negative as any petition requiring the signature of qualified voters means that such voters must be registered and unless their names are reflected on the registration lists, such voters are not qualified to sign any such petition. If they do, then their names should be stricken.
Our response to your fifth question would be in the negative concerning present state guidelines for handling precincts containing transient populations.
The penalty provision to which you refer, namely KRS 116.995, would be applicable we believe to those members of the board of elections who willfully failed to comply with their statutory duties which in this instance would include refusal to comply with the requirements of KRS 116.125.
We trust the above sufficiently answers your questions.