It’s Election Day and if you didn’t vote early by mail or in person, today is the last day for you to cast a ballot in this year’s General Election.
Kentuckians will weigh in on contests for president, the U.S. Senate, Congress, the state legislature and local elections this year.
Here's our Election Day blog:
Early Voting, and Early Counting, Should Pay Off Election Night
Election officials say most ballots will be counted in Kentucky by the end of the night and most election results will be reported. That’s because officials got a head start on counting during the pandemic.
State Board of Elections executive director Jared Dearing says he expects more than 98% of Kentucky’s vote will be counted by the end of Election Day.
County clerks have been counting ballots for weeks now, since the state expanded mail-in and early in person voting amid the coronavirus pandemic.
By 3:30 pm Eastern, more than 330,000 had cast ballots in person on Election Day. And on top that about 1.6 million voted early, either by mail or in person.
Dearing estimated that about 2.2 million Kentuckians would cast ballots in the General Election, with an additional 15-20,000 mail-in ballots coming in later this week.--Ryland Barton
NPR: Why You May Need To Be Patient on Election Night
From NPR's Benjamin Swasey:
Followers of NPR's elections coverage should have read or heard this at least a few times by now: We may not know who wins the presidential election (or any number of other down-ballot races) on Tuesday night or early Wednesday, and that's OK.
State results are not final on election night; instead, organizations like The Associated Press — which NPR relies on for race calls — determine most winners well before local officials tabulate all votes.
One Warren County Voter Wants His Normal Football Broadcasts Back
The end of what any have described as an exhausting election season is here.
Warren County voter DJ Lee says he’s just ready for the often-negative political advertisements and talk to end.
“I’m ready to just watch a football game and not see three or four political ads in between every commercial break,” he told WKU Public Radio.
Lee says he sees voting as a way for his voice to be heard and would like the status quo to change.--Colin Jackson
Hardin County Has IT Specialists at Polling Places, Just In Case
County election officials are anxious to see what voter turnout will look like after the dust finally settles following Election Day.
Hardin County Clerk Debbie Donnelly says Election Day is going well because they planned for possible snags. Donnelly has deputy clerks and an IT specialist at all polling locations to help with technical issues and confusion with ballots.
“So that way we could just keep feeding the voters through and we wouldn’t have to stop and do any extra work,” Donnelly said.
Donnelly requested four voting locations in Hardin County to make sure she had enough people to help address issues.
County clerks in Meade, Larue, and Nelson all told WKU Public Radio Tuesday that they haven’t had any trouble at polling sites and are hopeful things will continue to run smoothly until polls close at 6 p.m. local time.--Alana Watson
Smooth Sailing Reported in Henderson County
The enthusiasm for voting in this election is apparent in Henderson County Tuesday.
County Clerk Renesa Abner says voters started early and are continuing to arrive at all five polling locations.
“Of course, we opened at 6 a.m. and I think every one of our locations there was a line. There were people waiting as soon as the doors opened. Those lines were quickly taken care of and now there’s just as a steady pace," she told WKU Public Radio late morning.
Henderson County had about 5,000 voters use mail-in ballots. As of midday, the county had 13,500 residents vote in-person, either by early voting or at polling sites.--Rhonda Miller
Some Voting Complaints Filed Tuesday Morning
The Office of the Attorney General has received 26 complaints today, as of 10:30 a.m., about issues at the polls.
Most Kentuckians voted early in-person or with absentee ballots, and the AG’s office has gotten 276 total complaints for the 2020 General election cycle, the office said today.
Most of the Election Day complaints are about electioneering. The attorney general’s reports don’t address whether the complaints have been verified. -Kate Howard
Election Day is Finally Here
As of Sunday, 933,409 Kentuckians have voted in person and 574,574 people have cast ballots by mail, for a total of 42% of registered voters in the state.
Turnout in Kentucky is expected to be about 70% in the election. The state record for turnout was 72% set during the 1992 presidential election.
But every county still has centralized places to cast ballots in person on Election Day and you can cast a ballot at any of them, as long they are in the county you’re registered to vote in.
You can find where your county’s polling places are atGoVoteKy.com.
If you requested a mail-in ballot but never received one, you can still cast a ballot in person on Election Day, but you should plan some extra time to do so.
At your polling place, an election official will have you fill out paperwork canceling your request for a mail-in ballot to ensure you don’t vote twice.
If you have a mail-in ballot, but haven’t sent it in yet, the deadline to do so is today, November 3rd. County clerks will continue to accept mail-in ballots as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.
Mail-in ballotscan also be dropped off during voting hours at polling places and county clerk’s offices.
Polls will be open on Election Day from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m., local time. Voters can cast ballots as long as they are in line by 6 p.m.
If you want to report suspected election law violations, contact the state attorney general’s office at 1-800-328-VOTE. The number of complaints received by the hotline on Election Day can be viewed here.
Democrats have slightly outnumbered Republicans during early voting in Kentucky—as of Sunday, 740,584, or 44%, of Democrats have already cast ballots, while 528,819, or 43%, of Republicans have done so.
Voting on Election Day is a little different than it has been in the past. Most counties have fewer polling places than they usually do because of a scarcity of poll workers and an expansion of absentee voting during the coronavirus pandemic.--Ryland Barton
