The Kentucky Board of Elections has approved Warren County’s plans for the Nov.3 general election.
Warren County usually has 88 precincts open for in-person voting on election day. Next month’s election will feature six, including Buchanon Park, Phil Moore Park, Ephraim White Park, Living Hope Baptist Church, Warren Central High School, and the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center.
Warren County Clerk Lynette Yates says there will be 50 officers at each of the county’s six voting precincts.
“They’re going to be like voting centers, so it’s not just like you’re one precinct you may have out in your community. You may have ten voting lines in that one large facility, so that’s why we still need a number of election officers.”
Yates says Warren County voters can cast their ballot at any of those six precincts, regardless of where they live.
Warren County is not struggling to find poll workers for next month's election as it did in the June primary when the entire state experienced a shortage of volunteers due to COVID-19.
Warren County typically needs 350 election officers to carry out a general election and Yates says her office already has that many who have volunteered to work the polls next month.
The secretary of state’s office has recruited more than 5,000 poll workers through an online portal, which has led to an increase in the number of voting locations that will be open on election day.
In a virtual address to the Bowling Green Noon Rotary Club on Wednesday, Adams said more than a dozen counties will be able to reopen all of their typical precincts for next month’s election.
Most counties had only one voting precinct open for the June primary because may older precinct officers declined to work due to their vulnerability to COVID-19.
No-excuse early voting opens Oct. 13 and runs through Nov. 2 at SKYPAC Monday-Friday from 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Early voting will also be open on the three Saturdays leading up to the election. SKYPAC will host Saturday voting on Oct. 17, 24, and 31 from 8:00 a.m-12:00 p.m. Yates says there won’t be any early voting at the courthouse.
“Because of the way the courthouse is set up right now with social distancing and so many people in at a time, we couldn’t have people lined up to vote, do registrations, transfers, and things like that, so we had to go off-site for our early voting," Yates explained.
Oct. 9 is the deadline to request an absentee ballot. For those not wanting to mail their absentee ballot, Yates says her office has a drop-off box outside the courthouse during regular business hours that is monitored by a sheriff’s deputy. Once early voting opens next week at SKYPAC, a ballot drop box will be located there, as well.
Yates is predicting turnout for the Nov. 3 election will be 70 to 75 percent. That would exceed the 2016 presidential election when turnout was around 60 percent in Warren County.
