27% of KY voters requested a ballot. Participation higher in Louisville and Lexington.
Nearly 27 percent of registered voters in Kentucky have requested an absentee ballot or already cast their vote a week out from the June 23 primary, according to the Kentucky State Board of Elections, indicating a potentially high turnout amid a statewide push to get people to vote absentee because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That compares to a turnout of 20.6 percent four years ago, 13.9 percent eight years ago and 32.2 percent 12 years ago, when the Democratic presidential primary betweet Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton was still undecided.
The state has seen 937,723 votes cast or requested, according to the board of elections, and at least 92,611 of those ballot requests came from Fayette County. That would equal a 38 percent voter turnout in the state’s second-largest city if all ballots are returned.
“It exceeds every presidential primary going back to Bush vs. Gore,” said Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins.
In Jefferson County, Around 35 percent of the registered voters have requested ballots, according to Nore Ghibaudy, spokesman for the Jefferson County Clerk. The highest recorded turnout since 1980 in Jefferson County was 44.4 percent in 1983.
Kenton County Clerk Gabrielle Summe said 33,563 people have requested a ballot, which will be the highest percentage in the past 10 years and nearly double the amount in 2016.
So far, about 22 percent of the ballots in Kenton County have come back, 35 percent in Fayette County have come back and 15 percent in Jefferson County have come back.
County clerks say the attention on the primary — Gov. Beshear has repeatedly told people to vote absentee in his afternoon press conferences that are broadcast statewide and the Democratic Primary for U.S. Senate has been tightening over the past month — and the fact that people can vote from home has boosted turnout.
“In a way you could argue that we have thousands upon thousands of voting locations in this election,” Blevins said.
The high number of people voting absentee should decrease the number of people who show up at the polls on election day. In three of Kentucky’s largest counties — Jefferson, Fayette and Kenton — there will only be one polling place. State Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Louisville, filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to require more polling places and Democratic Senate candidate Amy McGrath joined the suit last week. Cambell and Boone Counties said they would add additional polling places Monday.
There is a hearing on the lawsuit in the Western Kentucky division of U.S. District Court on Wednesday.
All three counties are using large venues as their single polling place. In Louisville it’s the Kentucky Exposition Center, in Lexington it’s Kroger Field and in Kenton County it’s the Northern Kentucky Convention Center. The clerks were asked to anticipate 50 percent turnout with 25 percent coming on Election Day (50 percent turnout is considered extremely high for a primary).
Summe said her office will be able to handle 30,000 people at the convention center and that she has a contingency plan to utilize the other half of the room if lines get too long.
Blevins said he chose Kroger Field as the single polling location because it was handicap accessible, had good traffic flow and parking and it could hold a lot of people while allowing them to keep six feet apart. LexTran will provide free busing to Kroger Field on Election Day.
In the meantime, clerks are still processing ballot applications. In Fayette County, Blevins expects to have all of the absentee ballots in the mail by Wednesday (some people who are registered independent or non-affiliated don’t qualify for a ballot) and has sent out 91.4 percent of the absentee ballots requested.
In Jefferson County, 78 percent of the ballots have been sent out so far.
Ballots have to be postmarked by June 23 in order to be counted.
Correction: The percentage of registered voters who requested ballots in Jefferson County was incorrect in an earlier version of this story because the Jefferson County Clerk’s office had not yet removed duplicate requests for ballots. It is around 35 percent.
This story was originally published June 16, 2020 at 1:21 PM with the headline "27% of KY voters requested a ballot. Participation higher in Louisville and Lexington.."
