Request By:
Troy Russelburg
Hancock County Clerk
P.O. Box 146
County Administration Building
Hawesville, Kentucky 42348
Opinion
Opinion By: Frederic J. Cowan, Attorney General; Ross T. Carter, Assistant Attorney General
You have asked how the names of candidates for city council in Hawesville are to be placed on the ballot.
We assume from your letter and from previous communications that Hawesville elects city officers on a non-partisan basis and has waived the primary pursuant to KRS 83A.045. Normally the filing deadline for city elections is 91 days before the regular election. However, KRS 83A.045 (2)(b)7. allows candidates to file as late as 30 days before the election if there are fewer candidates than there are offices to be filled. Apparently such a situation existed in Hawesville and some candidates filed for city office after the 91-day deadline.
Under KRS 118.225, the county clerk must conduct a public drawing to determine the order of names on the ballot. This drawing must be held 88 days before the regular election. In normal circumstances this procedure is appropriate, since the drawing occurs three days after the filing deadline. It is only in the unusual circumstances caused by application of KRS 83A.045(2)(b)7. that the statute requires that the drawing be held before the filing deadline has passed.
The law makes no provision for a second drawing to be held after the drawing specified in KRS 118.225(3); consequently there is no authority for the clerk to conduct a second drawing or to alter in any way the sequence established in the drawing for the candidates who filed before the 91-day deadline. The only logical procedure is to add the names of the late filers at the end of the sequence established by the drawing. To insure impartial application of this procedure, the names of the late filers should be added in the order in which the clerk receives the filing papers.