AN ACT relating to elections and declaring an emergency.
     Amend KRS 116.055 to establish December 31 immediately preceding a primary as the date by which a voter may change political party affiliations and still be eligible to vote in the next primary; amend KRS 118.125 to conform the candidate filing forms to comply with the changes made in KRS 116.055; amend KRS 118.315 to establish December 31 immediately preceding a regular election as the date by which a person must have been registered as an independent to be on a regular election ballot as an independent candidate; amend KRS 116.112 to permit a county clerk to request, and to require a public utility to provide, information regarding customer service address changes to assist the clerk in maintaining voter registration records; amend KRS 117.045 to eliminate the requirement for appointment of precinct election officers in non-election years unless a special election is ordered in a non-election year, to permit a county board of elections to appoint up to two additional precinct officers for a precinct, and to permit persons to serve as precinct election officers who have been registered as a member of a political party for one, instead of two, years; amend KRS 117.075, 117.077, 177.085, 117.086, 117.0863, and 117.087 to clarify language regarding absentee ballots; amend KRS 117.187 to specify that precinct election officers must be trained before each primary and regular election; amend KRS 117.227 to permit a precinct election officer to confirm a voter's identity by use of any identification which displays the voter's picture and signature and to eliminate the option for a voter with no identification to complete a voter's oath and to be allowed to vote; amend KRS 117.255 to restructure the language regarding requests for and receipt of assistance in voting to require that all persons requiring voting assistance be assisted by two precinct election judges unless they have brought someone with them to provide assistance; amend KRS 117.265 to prohibit a person from being a write-in candidate for more than one office in an election and to eliminate the exemption for candidates for municipal office in cities of the fifth and sixth class from filing declarations of intent to receive write-in votes; amend KRS 160.210 to permit a school board to alter school board district boundaries more often than every five years when necessary to conform with voting precinct boundaries; provide that voters who have changed political party affiliations since the last regular election up to the effective date of the Act would be allowed to vote in their new party's primary in May, 1998, and that persons who are not registered to vote on the effective date of the Act who register after the effective date of the Act while the registration books are open may vote in the primary if they have not changed their political party affiliation since registering; EMERGENCY.

     (Prefiled by the sponsor(s).)

     Jan 6-introduced in House
     Jan 7-to Elections and Constitutional Amendments (H)