(1) A contest instituted under KRS 120.155 shall proceed as equity actions. Upon return of the summons properly executed to the office of the circuit clerk, he or she shall immediately docket the case and notify the presiding judge of the court that the contest has been filed. The judge shall proceed to a trial of the cause without delay. In courts having more than one (1) judge, the judge who shall try the case shall be determined by lot. The court shall complete the case as soon as practicable. The action shall have precedence over all other cases.
(2) The evidence in chief for the contestant shall be completed within thirty (30) days after service of summons; the evidence for the contestee shall be completed within twenty-five (25) days after filing of answer, and evidence for contestant in rebuttal shall be completed within seven (7) days after the contestee has concluded; provided that for cause the court may grant a reasonable extension of time to either party.
(3) All voting machines, voting equipment, or voting systems, ballots, stub books, and other papers concerning which there is any ground for contest may be removed to the court in which the action is pending.
(4) If it appears from an inspection of the whole record that there has been such fraud, intimidation, bribery, or violence in the conduct of the election that neither contestant nor contestee can be judged to have been fairly elected, the Circuit Court, or an appellate court, on appeal, may adjudge that there has been no election. In that event the office shall be deemed vacant, with the same legal effect as if the person elected had refused to qualify. If one (1) of the parties is adjudged by the court to be elected to the office, he or she shall, on production of a copy of the final judgment, be permitted to qualify or be commissioned.