Request By:
Mr. C. "Ollie" Robinson
Clerk, Floyd County Court
Prestonsburg, Kentucky 41653
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Suzanne Guss, Assistant Attorney General
This is in response to your request for an opinion of this office regarding local option elections in Floyd County, which is wet. The questions you have presented are as follows:
(1) When may the dry forces petition the court for another local option election?
KRS 242.030(2) provides that a local option election shall be held not earlier than sixty (60) nor later than ninety (90) days after the date the petition is filed with the county clerk. Thus, the time for holding the election is controlled by the date the petition is filed with the clerk. KRS 242.030 provides that no election shall be held in the same territory oftener than once in every three (3) years. Therefore, the petition for a local option election should not be filed prior to sixty days before expiration of the three-year period.
(2) When may a precinct request to have a local option election?
Where the county containing the precinct has voted wet, a local option election may be conducted in the precinct within less than three years of the county-wide election. See
Ball v. Hill, Ky., 240 S.W.2d 628 (1951);
Fuson v. Howard, Ky., 205 S.W.2d 1018 (1947).
I have enclosed a copy of OAG 77-467. I trust this information has satisfactorily answered your inquiry.