Request By:
Mr. Bremer Ehrler
Jefferson County Clerk
Courthouse
Louisville, Kentucky 40232-3033
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of March 17 in which you request an opinion concerning the following:
"I respectfully request your opinion as to the confidentiality of a voter's application to vote by means of an absentee ballot. Does the completed application constitute a public record or can the County Clerk deny the public access to the information on this document, namely voter's address?"
Although there is no specific statute under the election laws declaring that a voter's application for an absentee ballot required to be made under KRS 117.075 or 117.085 becomes a public record open to public inspection as is the case with registration records under KRS 116.095, we believe that it does since each type of form requires the same or similar information.
It is to be noted that KRS 116.049 specifying the contents of a voter's registration records requires the inclusion of the voter's address when he submits his registration card which, as we have pointed out, is declared to be a public record pursuant to KRS 116.095, and open to public inspection by any citizen. Although the statutes do not state the required contents of the absent ballot application form including the voter's address, it is obviously essential for identification purposes and the State Board of Elections has promulgated such a form as authorized by KRS 117.085(1) which requires the voter to designate his address. Thus it would appear to deny a citizen access to the address of the voter as contained on his absent voter application form, but at the same time be required to make available to him as public record, the voter's address on his registration record would be legally inconsistent and in fact serve no valid purpose particularly since all the citizen would have to do would be to observe the name of the absent voter that is required to be posted in the clerk's office pursuant to KRS 117.085(4) and then obtain a copy of the voter's registration record containing the voter's address concerning which he cannot be denied access under KRS 116.095.
We also wish to point out that the State Board of Elections may make available to any person the voter precinct list of names and addresses except those persons who intend to use such list for commercial purposes.
We recognize the fact that this office has held in at least one previous opinion, OAG 76-717, that the State Department of Personnel can withhold from public inspection the address of state employees found on the application form on the ground that it violates the open records law as an invasion of the employee's personal privacy referred to as an exception under KRS 61.878(1)(a). However correct this opinion may be, it obviously deals with a different set of facts and circumstances from those present here, which we have addressed above. As a consequence it is clearly distinguishable and is simply modified insofar as it may appear applicable to the information contained on a voter's registration record and absent voter application form, which includes the voter's address.