Request By:
Honorable William R. Young
Lyon County Attorney
P.O. Box 472
Eddyville, Kentucky 42038
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of September 27 in which you enclose a copy of a letter that the Lyon County court clerk has received from the Eddyville prison Branch of the N.A.A.C.P. The letter requests that the clerk send voter registration forms to the Political Action Committee chairman at the penitentiary presumably to register inmates at the prison. The question is raised as to whether or not the clerk should supply the forms requested as well as whether or not any person who completes and returns the form should be registered in view of the fact that the residents of the penitentiary are convicted felons.
In response to your question, we initially refer you to KRS 116.045(1) which reads as follows:
"Any person may register as a voter during the period registration is open if he possesses, or will possess on the day of the next regular election, the qualifications set forth in KRS 116.025."
Next we refer you to KRS 116.025(1)(2) which reads as follows:
"(1) Every person, male or female, who is a resident of this state and has resided in the precinct in which he offers to vote thirty (30) days next preceding the day of any regular or special election, who possesses on the day of any election the qualifications set forth in Constitution section 145, exclusive of the durational residency requirements, who is not disqualified under that section or under any other statute, and who is registered as provided in this chapter, may vote for all officers to be elected by the people and on all public questions submitted for determination at that election, in the precinct in which he is qualified to vote.
(2) Persons charged with or indicted for a crime, whether or not in custody for same, who have not yet been convicted of the said offense and who are not otherwise ineligible to vote, may vote for all offices to be elected by the people and on all public questions submitted for determination at that election, in the precinct in which he is qualified to vote." (Emphasis added.)
Section 145 of the Constitution concerning persons entitled to vote provides in part the following:
"1. Persons convicted in any court of competent jurisdiction of treason, or felony, or bribery in an election, or of such high misdemeanor as the general assembly may declare shall operate as an exclusion from the right of suffrage, but persons hereby excluded may be restored to their civil rights by executive pardon."
As the above statutes indicate, KRS 116.045 authorizes any person to register as a voter provided he will possess on the day of the next regular election the qualifications set forth in KRS 116.025. This latter statute as the above quote indicates disqualifies from voting any person who has been convicted of a felony. It also permits a restoration of their civil rights which includes, of course, their right to vote, after they have served their sentence. This is done by making application to the Governor for restoration of said rights. The section further provides that persons simply charged with or indicted for a crime who may be in custody for same, but who as yet have not been convicted of the offense, shall be eligible to vote. KRS 117.085 also quoted in part above authorizes any qualified voter, which includes any person incarcerated in jail who has been charged for a crime but not yet convicted of a crime, to make application for an absentee ballot not less than seven days before the election.
As the above referred to section of the Constitution and statutes provide, only those persons who can qualify to vote may register to vote which excludes, however, any person who has been convicted of a felony and incarcerated in prison.
As a consequence, if the recipients of these registration applications are to be convicted felons incarcerated in prison, we believe the clerk can legally refuse to comply with the request since the applicants would not be entitled to register and vote.