Request By:
Mr. S. Kenneth Lindon
Wolfe County Clerk
Courthouse
Campton, Kentucky 41301
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of December 9 in which you seek advice as to the individual who would be authorized to deliver an application form to an applicant for an absentee ballot, particularly where the individual has no parent, spouse, or child. More specifically, the question is whether or not the clerk or his deputy would be authorized to hand deliver the application form to such a voter following his request.
In OAG 78-424, copy attached, this office took the position that KRS 117.085 which provides that the voter may make application in person or by mail to the clerk for an absentee ballot, can only refer to the return of the application form properly filled out by the voter requesting an absentee ballot. The opinion further held that the application form could be requested in person, by mail or by phone by the voter, his spouse, the voter's parent or dependent children, the latter being added as a 1982 amendment. On the other hand, the actual method of delivering the application form properly stamped by the clerk with the voter's name typed thereon is not covered by the statute, but is presumed to be by either mail or in person by one of the authorized persons making the request mentioned in the statute.
Where the voter is incapacitated to the extent of his being unable to pick up the form in person and in addition has no qualifying spouse or relative to do so, we believe delivery should be by mail unless the time element is such that mail delivery could not reach the voter in time for him to return his application by mail in time to be received by the clerk before 3:00 on election day. Such a situation could occur in connection with a medical emergency where by virtue of the 1982 amendment an application for an absentee ballot can be made at any time less than seven days before the election or in other words, theoretically, up until election day under the terms of KRS 117.075(3). In such an event we believe the clerk would be authorized to personally or by deputy, deliver the application form to the voter.