Vote-buying alleged in seven Kentucky counties

The Kentucky election fraud hotline received 212 calls Tuesday, with complaints from at least 61counties, including 11 allegations of vote-buying in Carter, Crittenden, Knott, Magoffin, Metcalfe, Perry and Russell counties.

According to the Kentucky Attorney General's office, which administers the hotline, calls ran the gamut — complaints about voting machines and election officials, electioneering, general election fraud, disrupting the polls and more. The largest number, 44 calls, were procedural questions.

Attorney General's office spokeswoman Allison Martin said there were 272 complaints in the 2008 general election; on primary day in May this year, the hotline received 126 calls from 43 counties.

There were 17 hotline calls from Fayette County, including three procedural questions; one allegation of a person voting more than once; one report of campaign violations; two allegations of electioneering within 300 feet of the polls and six complaints about voting machines. There also were two complaints about voter identification, one about an election official and one regarding general election fraud/other.

The largest number of calls (35 in all) came from Jefferson County, which also has the largest number of voters.

Most voting across the state went smoothly when polls opened at 6 a.m., but there were some hiccups.

Fayette County Clerk's office spokeswoman Kitty Ware said they received several calls during the day about signs too close to the polls.

Several precincts — including Meadowthorpe, Sayre Village and Boone Station — had malfunctioning voting machines that were replaced. And at least 25 precincts called for extra machines Tuesday because of long lines of voters.

Voter turnout in Fayette County was 49.86 percent, with 90,878 ballots cast, according to the State Board of Elections. Fayette County has 182,284 registered voters.

Turnout was even higher in Jefferson County, where more than 50 percent of the county's 493,902 registered voters went to the polls.

This story was originally published November 3, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Vote-buying alleged in seven Kentucky counties."