Request By:
Ms. Carla R. Boyd
Floyd County Clerk
Courthouse
P.O. Box 1089
Prestonsburg, Kentucky 41653
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of January 25 in which you relate that there is a which you relate that there is which you relate that there is a registered voter in Floyd County who changed his affiliation from Democrat to Republican following the November 1984 general election. He was told at the time that by doing so he would not be eligible to vote in the May 1985 primary election, which he apparently understood. Now he wants to file his notification and declaration papers to run in the primary for county office on a Republican ticket. Under the circumstances you raise the following question:
"Can he legally file to run for a county office on the Republican ticket for this May 1985 Primary Election since he will not be eligible to vote?"
Our response to your question would be in the negative. Under the terms of KRS 118.125 it is provided that in order to be eligible to become a candidate for major party nomination in the May primary, the candidate must be qualified to vote in the primary as a member of the party for which he seeks nomination as provided in KRS 116.055. This latter statute requires that a person be a registered member of the party on whose behalf he seeks to vote, and must be so registered with said party at the previous November election and remain so registered unless it involves a completely new registration and not a change in political affiliation.
Since the individual in question changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican subsequent to the 1984 November election, he is disqualified from becoming a candidate in the May primary for either party. He could, however, change his registration back to that of Democrat and be qualified to seek nomination as a member of that party. He can, of course, run as an independent but must file by the February 27 deadline, KRS 118.365.