Liggins says no way to closing Fayette County schools for 5 days for early voting
The war of words over potentially closing some Fayette County schools for early voting has been heating up.
In mid-February, I wrote about Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins’ plan to close some schools May 12-17 so they could be used for three days of early voting plus primary election day. They would be non-traditional instruction days. Blevins told me he had met with Liggins, who seemed amenable to the idea. He also told the county elections board that Liggins was in, according to minutes from the Feb. 9 meeting.
But on the Feb. 24, Liggins fired off a letter to Blevins that seemed the opposite of amenable. The gist of it is he believes Blevins was overstating his statutory authority to just close down schools.
“Your interpretation of the law will disrupt learning and cause hardship to working families who do not have options for taking care of their children when out of school, and it is just not consistent with the letter of the law,” Liggins wrote in a Feb. 24 letter. “This is not the time for the County Clerk’s Office to impose a reading of the law that would shut down the school district for three days.”
Early voting is scheduled for May 12, 13, and 14. But schools would stay closed Monday, May 16 because of the safety of voting machines until primary election on May 17. Blevins says he has the statutory authority to use any building constructed with tax dollars for voting.
On Wednesday, Blevins said the choice was ineffective early voting or closing the schools. “It’s a no-win situation,” he said. “The real problem is it’s only three days.”
A group of parents, some associated with Fayette County Kids Matter (formerly Let Them Learn) has jumped into the fray. Some of them will be at a planning meeting the district is holding tomorrow at which Blevins is supposed to appear. They are angry that the first full in-person school year after two years of pandemic would be shut down for five days. It’s not yet clear if Blevins will have to close all the schools or just some of them. But the end of May is chockful of exams, concerts, plays and catch-up learning.
“I was appalled at the suggestion that our kids’ education could be disrupted again,” said parent Jeff Lowe. “They have missed out on so much already over the last two years, and we know (as the district has openly admitted) that NTI is no substitute for in-school learning.”
Parent Marci Kloiber (who is married to Lexington Urban County Council Member David Kloiber), said Blevins called her after she contacted his office about the issue.
“This is the first full year with in person school and there’s so much to catch up on,” she said. “So many are behind already and closing school at the end of the year is a real challenge.”
Blevins said earlier that the usual suspects like Rupp Arena is already booked. UK spokesman Jay Blanton said Kroger Field could be used for early voting in the May primary because students have gone home, but November would be a problem because of parking.
Blevins said he had not contacted the Urban County Council for help because he didn’t think they would have a solution.
“This is a creative community,” Marci Kloiber said. “I know we could come up with some different solutions.”
In the 2020 primary and general election, Kentucky voters could for the first time request an absentee ballot without an excuse like sickness or, essentially creating vote by mail. We also had three weeks of early voting in person so people wouldn’t be crowded together during a pandemic. In Fayette, early voting was held in eight places, including libraries, the Dunbar Center, the Senior Center, two schools, and BCTC on Leestown.
Blevins said that three days of early voting is not enough time to create one central voting location that people can make time to visit, but it’s too much time to use the same general election precincts. Too few will cause long lines and calls of voter suppression. Right now he’s planning on using the schools for the foreseeable future.
Attorney Luke Morgan said he’s disturbed there’s been so little discussion of other ideas.
“There’s still plenty of time for the clerk to modify this plan to allow for safe and widely available voting and also to allow kids to stay in school by putting together some kind of combination of various facilities,” he said.
This is a problem, but as Marci Kloiber said, this is a smart and creative community. This is a needless problem. It’s time to give Blevins some new ideas that don’t hurt students or voters. Can someone please help him out?
This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 2:10 PM.
