Request By:
Mr. Everett Rains
Whitley County Clerk
P.O. Box 8
Williamsburg, Kentucky 40769
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of March 15, in which you relate that the magistrate of the first magisterial district of Whitley County resigned on March 14, 1983, and the question is raised as to whether or not a primary election would have to be held this May for possible party nominations to fill the vacancy this coming November for the unexpired term.
Our response to your question would be in the affirmative. Of course, under Section 152 of the Constitution, any vacancy occurring this year and within three months of the November election would have to be filled for the unexpired term, if such exists, which is the case in this instance. On the other hand, KRS 118.115 provides that if a vacancy occurs less than 70 days before the primary, no primary shall be held and the respective parties may make their own nominations for the November election. Since however the vacancy in question occurred on March 14, the 70 day deadline, excluding election day [May 24] as required in calculating time under KRS 446.030, would be March 15. In other words any vacancy occurring not later than March 15 would have to be filled at the regular party primary to be held on May 24. Therefore, since the vacancy occurred on March 14, which was more than 70 days before the primary, a primary election will have to be held for possible party nominations at the coming May primary, which means that candidates who are interested in being nominated will have to file their notification declaration papers not later than March 30 of this year.