COVID-19 forces Lexington elections office to close. Mail-in ballots will be delayed.
The Fayette County clerk’s elections department has been dealt a “devastating setback” as an employee tested positive for COVID-19, causing the department to temporarily shut down.
The shutdown will cause a delay in mailing out ballots to those who have already requested them, Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins said Monday. The pandemic has made mail-in voting more popular as citizens try to avoid crowds at polling places. As of Friday, about 45,000 Fayette County residents had already requested ballots, Blevins said.
“We are hoping to keep the delay to a minimum, perhaps just a few days,” Blevins said in a statement. “Voters’ requests for ballots will be processed in the date order received. Some may see their ballots by late September, but many will not receive their ballots until the first week of October.”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines require that all employees from the county’s elections department quarantine for two weeks, Blevins said. The department hopes to reopen by Sept. 28, Blevins said.
Questions about the upcoming General Election will have to be directed to the State Board of Elections until the Fayette department reopens, Blevins said. The state board can be reached at 1-800-246-1399.
“This is a devastating setback for us,” Blevins said in a statement. “We are in the process of establishing a backup process, but this will definitely have a significant impact.”
Despite the setback, the department has recruited “all of the necessary elections officers” for November’s election, Blevins said. He hopes to have in-person voting locations finalized by the end of the week.
This story was originally published September 14, 2020 at 11:44 AM.