Election day updates: Judge rejects request for polls to stay open late in Louisville
For the latest election information after polls close in Kentucky, including results, visit here.
Election Day voting problems in Kentucky’s largest — and bluest — city prompted calls for election officials to keep polls open late in Jefferson County.
Polls are scheduled to close at 6 p.m. local time across the commonwealth. If you are in line by 6 p.m., you will be allowed to vote no matter how long it takes.
5:45 p.m.: A Jefferson County judge has denied a motion to extend polling hours after “severe technical issues” caused hours-long voting delays in Louisville Tuesday morning.
The Kentucky Democratic Party and Kentucky American Civil Liberties Union had filed a motion in Jefferson Circuit Court asking to extend polling hours to make up for the delays.
But Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Eric Haner denied the motion just 30 minutes before polls were set to close in Kentucky Tuesday.
Haner ruled that the request did not establish that anyone in Louisville had been denied the right to vote, and the polling locations did not close.
4:30 p.m.: As voting in Kentucky headed into the final hours on Tuesday, several people at Lexington Traditional Magnet School cast their ballot quickly and without lines.
One voter, Mequita Craig, voted for Kamala Harris for president. She had her daughter in tow, and she said one of her major priorities was women’s rights and funding for senior health care.
Craig said she did not want anyone to be able to tell her what access to health care she could or could not have — especially when it came to abortion access.
“If my daughter is 16 years old and gets pregnant, I shouldn’t have to take her four states away if she needs an abortion,” Craig said.
Another voter, Grant Koepke, said his primary focus when casting his vote was the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. He cast his vote for third-party candidate Jill Stein, although he admitted she was unlikely to become the nation’s leader.
But, it was better than the two major parties, he said.
“There is no legitimate choice,” he said. “If (former President Donald Trump) gets elected, Israel is getting bombed. If (Harris) wins, Israel is getting bombed.”
Meshawn Gragston brought her son, who cast a vote for the first time. That, she said, was the only thing to which she was looking forward on Tuesday.
While Gragston would not disclose who won her vote, she said the whole election “threw her for a loop.”
“The candidates have changed, and the policies have been all over the place,” she said. “I just can’t keep up.”
In Pulaski County, David Ramsey, a 42-year-old disabled Army vet and Science Hill resident, said he voted for Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver. Ramsey said he used to be a registered Republican but is not a registered Libertarian.
“I’m really not for either of the other two,” he said of Trump and Harris.
He said Harris did not provide enough specifics during the campaign about policies she would pursue, and Trump seems too cozy with billionaires.
Isaac Sanders, 49, of Somerset, is also an Army veteran who said he was voting for Harris for “the protection of the country.”
“I think we need new all around,” he said.
William Martin, 41, of Eubank, a registered Republican, voted for Trump.
The economy and illegal immigration were his main concerns.
“The economy is so bad right now, and also immigration,” he said. “Hopefully if Trump wins he’ll start to steer everything back in the right direction.”
Charles A. Carrender, of Science Hill, 53, works at Walmart, and is registered independent. He said he voted for Stein because he believed she is the most qualified.
His top issue was inflation, and he believed Stein would do more to address that concern.
Carrender said he didn’t see Harris as “leadership material,” and she didn’t make a compelling case hat she would do a better job than Biden.
He cited several reasons he doesn’t support Trump, including his threat to put high tariffs on Chinese goods, his treatment of women and the fact that he was convicted of a sexual crime and multiple felonies.
“Trump’s my nightmare come back to life,” he said.
3:30 p.m.: There were 280 Election Day calls to the Kentucky Voter Fraud Hotline including 138 from Jefferson County, where widespread technical problems delayed voting across the city of Louisville and apparently sending some voters away before they could cast a ballot.
According to the Attorney General’s office, many from Louisville were related to voting machines.
The hotline will be staffed at least until 7 p.m. on Election Day and can take calls even afterward.
Calls so far this year have eclipsed those in the 2016 presidential election year, when 216 were received from 59 counties on Election Day. The Attorney General’s office received 330 complaints in the 2020 general election cycle, including those received on, before and after Election Day.
2:45 p.m.: The Kentucky Democratic Party and Kentucky American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion in Jefferson Circuit Court asking to extend polling hours in Jefferson County after “severe technical issues” caused early morning voting delays, according to a news release.
According to the motion, “significant county-wide delays” began almost immediately and the electronic poll books crashed “approximately every 3 minutes for the first three and one half hours of voting.”
An affidavit by the clerk of a polling precinct at Hartstern Elementary said voters waited as long as 2 1/2 hours.
Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw’s office sent an employee to reboot the system around 9:30 a.m., when they were finally able to process voters normally, according to the affidavit.
KDP Executive Director Morgan Eaves said in a statement: “After receiving numerous reports of technical issues causing severe delays and infringing on Kentuckians’ constitutional right to vote, we immediately filed a motion to request that the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office extend polling hours until 8 p.m. ET. We will use all legal means necessary to ensure that every single Kentuckian eligible to vote has the ability to do so.”
2 p.m.: Election Day calls to the Kentucky Voter Fraud Hotline hit 214 by 1 p.m., with more than half of them coming from Jefferson County.
According to the Attorney General’s office, there were 112 calls so far from Jefferson County with many related to voting machines.
There were so far 15 calls from Fayette County, according to the Attorney General’s office.
1:30 p.m.: Fayette County has not experienced technical issues but has seen a surge in voting that is expected to continue as the workday ends, according to a spokeswoman for Clerk Susan Lamb.
“We are just swamped at all the locations, with lots of calls to phone banks checking on registrations,” said Meredith Watson.
12:30 p.m.: Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg posted on social media that he was encouraging Jefferson County and the state Board of Elections “to keep the polls open longer and provide all available accommodations to ensure that everyone gets a chance to vote in this important election” after widespread voting problems earlier in the day in the heavily Democratic city.
However, the Jefferson County Clerk’s office responded to WDRB with a statement: “We have no intention of keeping polls open later than 6, and we would appreciate if the mayor would refrain from telling us how to do our job. We take this very seriously, and we are very confident that everyone will be able to vote by 6pm today.”
The Kentucky Lantern reported that the ACLU of Kentucky is “exploring all options, including litigation, to ensure every eligible voter in Jefferson County can access the ballot box today. ... We encourage anyone impacted by today’s breakdown to call the Voter Protection Hotline 866-Our-Vote.”
11:30 a.m.: Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said in a news conference that, as of 10 a.m., there were 156 calls from 32 counties on Election Day across the commonwealth to the election fraud hotline.
Many of the calls came from Jefferson County, he said.
He said it’s frustrating that there were problems in Jefferson County but the calls and online reports also show the system works.
Coleman said the issues in Louisville on Tuesday regarding polling delays have been resolved and he is encouraging any voters who had to leave to return to vote.
“This morning in Jefferson County, there were multiple issues in multiple polls, technical issues, my understanding is these have all been resolved,” Coleman said. “I encourage those who were frustrated, who left, to return to the polls.”
How to vote
Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time.
Registered voters will need to show photo ID or be known personally by an election official who must sign an affirmation.
Acceptable forms of ID include your driver’s license, military ID, college ID or Kentucky government ID. Other forms of ID are accepted with signed statements.
You can look up your polling place at govote.ky.gov.
How to report voting problems
If you see election problems, you can report them on the Voter Fraud Hot Line at 800-328-VOTE or online at ag.ky.gov.
There were 357 pre-Election Day calls from across the state, including 19 from Fayette County.
Coleman said that a team of state, federal and local law enforcement and constitutional officers is working to provide free, fair and secure elections in the commonwealth.
“We want to show Kentuckians that we take election integrity seriously,” Coleman said on Tuesday.
He said they can help get voters to the correct information and to debunk false information about voting problems as well.
Coleman said that he had purposely called the hotline at 6 a.m. on Saturday to see if he would get voicemail; instead he got a senior elections official in person.
Many calls to the hotline involved procedural or legal questions, but some involved “electioneering” (candidate or issue advocacy too near the polling place) or allegations of campaign violations, vote buying/selling, voter intimidation and people attempting to vote more than once.
In Fayette County, there were four pre-Election Day calls about campaign violations, three about electioneering, and five involving or from an election official.
There were complaints in 12 Kentucky counties involving voting machines before Election Day.
The attorney general’s office does not release specific information about ongoing investigations, but allegations of a “vote-switching” malfunction in Laurel County were investigated and deemed unfounded.
And, despite a viral social media post, there was no complaint to the Kentucky election board involving a pre-marked ballot.
9:45 a.m.: The Kentucky Attorney General’s election fraud hotline received 110 Election Day complaints by 9 a.m. including seven calls from Fayette County. The calls in Lexington were related to election officials, procedural and legal questions and absentee ballots.
Jefferson County, which experienced delays involving electronic poll books used to verify registration, had 68 calls including 41 involving voting machines and 10 involving procedural questions. Other complaints included allegations of a non-citizen voter and a person voting more than once.
At 9:30 a.m. Kentucky Secretary State Michael Adams’ spokeswoman Michon Lindstrom said: “I am being told by ES&S the issue has been resolved. The delay was caused by the epoll books not being backed up early enough to be ready at 6 am. This only affected Jefferson County. I’m being told the lines are moving more quickly.”
9:15 a.m.: Around the state, lines were long in some places but moving. In Science Hill, there was a steady stream of voters but no issues by mid-morning.
Voters took to social media to report high turnout in Bardstown and Bowling Green as well.
Anderson County Clerk Jason Denny, a Republican, said turnout there was 41.2% when the day started (from early voting) and had climbed to 51% as of mid-morning. Turnout on Election Day had been heavy but there had been no problems.
“It’s actually been a smooth morning,” he said. He projected the turnout would reach 70 to 75%.
Anderson County is one of a few in the state to offer drive-through voting. The drive-through location had four lanes. Denny said in the past, 60% of voters used the drive-through.
8:15 a.m.: Adams’ office says voting across Kentucky so far has been “pretty smooth.”
Spokeswoman Lindstrom said there were some early morning lines in Louisville because the electronic poll books “were turned on right at 6 a.m. which took a little time to get them running. Aside from that it’s pretty smooth.”
Louisville Public Media reported that it took some voters there more than an hour to vote because of technical delays of 30 minutes or more.
Adams posted on social media that they expected all poll books in Jefferson County to be fully operational by 8:30 a.m.
7:45 a.m.: In Fayette County, early voters in some locations found lines but voting was mostly smooth and quick, even with multiple items on the ballot.
Meredith Watson in Fayette County Clerk Susan Lamb’s office, said after normal start-up hiccups such as machines not turning on properly, all polling places are up and running.
“The only issues we’ve had is that lines at some polling places are very long,” Watson said. Center Point Church and Tates Creek Library both reported long lines, she said.
“Lines are just going to be long everywhere today. Ask folks to hang in there,” Watson said. “If you have a different address on your ID than on your voter registration then they have to manually check it. We’ve got everyone manning the phones. So please be patient.”
All precincts are open as well as polling places inside Lexington Public Libraries again today.
Some locations reported lines of voters waiting before the polls opened: “There were people out the door” at 5:20 a.m., said Ron Merrifield, a poll worker at Lansdowne Elementary where they had over 100 voters in the first hour. But things slowed after the rush hour.
Kingswood precinct in downtown Lexington just off Delaware also had more than 100 voters in the first hour, with a line beginning to form just after 7 a.m.
Polls are across Kentucky for Election Day voting from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time.
What’s on the ballot in Lexington, Kentucky
With the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump on the ballot, turnout was expected to be high.
Also driving Kentucky voters to the polls: two proposed constitutional amendments. One would reiterate that non-citizens cannot vote. The other would allow public tax dollars to go to private schools.
You may also vote on Congressional races, but no U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky is being contested this year. Several Kentucky House and Senate races are up for grabs.
In Fayette County, city council seats also are on the ballot, as well as a proposed tax to fund parks.
Turnout prediction
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams said that, based on heavy early voting, a record number of votes could be cast.
Adams said that including absentee ballots received and three days of early voting last week, 792,476 Kentuckians voted already, more than twice the number who voted early in 2023.
This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 5:59 AM.
