Kentucky voter turnout tops 59 percent, on par with 2016 election
Unofficial results for Kentucky’s 2020 general election showed strong turnout among registered voters, with more than 59 percent casting ballots.
There are 3,565,428 registered voters in Kentucky, and at least 2,116,390 cast ballots this election — 59.36 percent, according to the Kentucky State Board of Elections.
Casting a ballot in Kentucky this election season was easier than it’s ever been. In part because of the COVID-19 pandemic, virtually every Kentuckian had the option of voting absentee as a way of bypassing in-person voting and limiting potential spread of the virus at polling places.
In addition to broadening absentee qualifications, to further dilute what otherwise would be a typical Election Day, with droves of people waiting in line to vote, the state began allowing early in-person voting on Oct. 13, including on some Saturdays.
As Gov. Andy Beshear said on Monday, Kentuckians “had more ways to vote in this election than ever before.”
By Tuesday morning, 590,282 Kentuckians had voted absentee, and 1,213,743 had already voted in person, according to state figures. Turnout, even early on, soared and was projected to surpass the 59 percent turnout in the 2016 general election. But Kentucky voters didn’t turn out in record numbers across the board.
Outside the Dunbar Community Center in Lexington late Tuesday morning, Secretary of State Michael Adams said the 1992 general election between presidential candidates Bill Clinton, Ross Perot and incumbent George H.W. Bush brought 72.3 percent of registered Kentuckians to the polls, setting the modern day record.
“I don’t think we’re going to hit 72 percent,” Adams said, “But I think we’re going to get pretty close.”
That was an overestimate, at least as of late Tuesday, though more mailed ballots will trickle in in the coming days.
Counties leading turnout included Anderson County, where 71 percent of registered voters cast ballots, followed by Spencer County with 70 percent; Woodford County with 69 percent; Oldham County with 68 percent; Washington County with 67 percent; and Green, Marshall and Nelson counties with 66 percent turnout.
In Fayette County, like most places, absentee ballots heavily favored Democrats. Of the 83,354 voters who voted absentee for president, more than 73 percent cast their vote for Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden, while 25 percent voted absentee for President Donald Trump, according to unofficial results from the county clerk’s office.
Lexington’s overall turnout was already above 55 percent heading into Tuesday. Though still unofficial, the state election board clocked total Fayette County turnout late Tuesday at 58 percent.
For most of Tuesday, there were virtually no lines at most of Lexington’s eight in-person polling locations. But just before 6 p.m., nearly 200 people were still waiting to cast ballots at the Tates Creek Branch of the Lexington Public Library. Election officials stopped letting people get in line at 6 p.m. and let the final voter in just before 8 p.m.
By close of polls on Tuesday, Attorney General Daniel Cameron said his office had received 111 complaints during in-person voting, including 23 complaints of electioneering. Cameron’s office, overall, fielded 361 complaints about the 2020 general election.
