Jan. 25 is election filing deadline in Whitley County

You’ve still got a few more days to file, if you are thinking about running for elected office in Whitley County this year.

Gov. Andy Beshear recently signed HB172 into law, which extended the candidate filing deadline until 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 25. It was originally set for Jan. 7.

The filing deadline extension is due to redistricting, which was one by the state legislature in Frankfort.

Every 10 years redistricting is done based upon the new U.S. Census figures.

The Kentucky General Assembly recently approved redrawn boundaries for state legislative districts and congressional districts. Each district is supposed to have roughly the same number of people, and due to population shifts, legislators redraw those boundaries every 10 years.

The redrawn legislative districts in some cases put already filed candidates for a legislative seat out of the legislative district where they had initially filed. In the case of one Fayette County district, which was redrawn, three of the four previously filed candidates could no longer run for that seat because they no longer lived in the district based upon the redrawn legislative lines.