KRS 120.055: Procedure for contest of primary.

Any candidate for nomination to office at a primary held under the provisions of KRS

118.015 to 118.035 and 118.105 to 118.255, or any candidate for nomination to a city

office at a primary for which the statutes do not otherwise provide for determining contest

elections, for whom a number of votes was cast equal to not less than fifty percent (50%)

of the votes cast for the successful candidate for nomination to the office, may contest the

right of the successful candidate, and of any other candidate for n omination to the office,

to the nomination, by filing a petition in the Circuit Court within ten (10) days from the

day of the primary, stating the specific grounds relied upon for the contest, and causing a

summons to be issued, returnable in seven (7) da ys. In the case of candidates for offices

for the state at large, the petition shall be filed in the Franklin Circuit Court; in the case of

other candidates it shall be filed in the Circuit Court of the county in which the contestee

resides. The summons may be personally served on the contestee in any county, or it may

be served by leaving a copy at his or her home with a member of his or her family over

sixteen (16) years of age, or by posting a copy on the door of his or her residence. The

contestee shall file his or her answer within seven (7) days after service of summons. The

answer may contain grounds of contest in favor of the contestee and against the

contestant, but the grounds shall be specifically set out. Any candidate who would have

been qualifi ed to bring a contest action under this section, who is a party to a recount

proceeding brought under KRS 120.095, may, by filing an answer in the recount

proceeding within the time allowed by this section for filing grounds of contest, set forth

grounds of contest against the petitioner in the recount proceeding. No ground of contest

by either party shall be filed or made more definite by amendment after the expiration of

the time allowed by this section for filing the original pleading. The contestant may file a

reply within five (5) days after answer is filed, which shall complete the pleading, and any

affirmative matter in the reply shall be treated as controverted. Upon return of the

summons, properly executed, to the office of the circuit clerk of the county in which the

action is pending, the clerk shall immediately docket the cause and notify the presiding

judge of the court that the contest has been instituted, and the judge shall proceed to a

trial of the cause within five (5) days after the issue w as joined. In judicial circuits having

more than one (1) Circuit Judge, the judge who shall hear the cause shall be determined

by lot.