Early voters cast their ballots Friday in Warren County at the Sugar Maple Square polling place. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)
More Kentuckians voted early last week than ever before — 792,476, said Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams on X.
That number includes the end of early voting and in-person excused absentee voting.
On Election Day Tuesday, Kentucky polling locations will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time. In addition to casting ballots for the next president, Kentucky voters will decide legislative races, two constitutional amendments, local ballot initiatives and more.
Adams said that 656,277 Kentuckians cast ballots with no-excuse early voting. Most were registered Republican, or 52.6%. Meanwhile, 40.3% were registered Democrats and 7.1% are registered as Independent or other.
According to the Kentucky State Board of Elections, more than 3.5 million voters are eligible to vote in the general election.
On the first day of no-excuse early voting in 2024, 225,696 Kentucky voters participated. “First day of early voting 2020: 57,154 voted,” Adams said. “First day of early voting 2022: 81,961 voted. So: Wow.”
Early voting was established in Kentucky in 2020 amid health concerns during the coronavirus pandemic. Adams and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear backed that proposal at the time.
Before early voting began this year, Adams issued a plea to “for the love of God, vote early.” Voters seemingly heeded that advice, as reports of lines at polling locations began almost as soon as the three days of early voting began Thursday.
Former Republican Secretary of State Trey Grayson said on X he served as an elections officer in Boone County on Saturday.
“We had nonstop voting from 7am, when we opened, until 30 minutes after the scheduled 3pm closing in order to allow everyone in line at 3pm to vote,” Grayson said. “Our voters were friendly and patient. No one was rude. It was a good day.”
False fraud claim in Laurel County
For the most part, early voting in Kentucky went smoothly. However, a video that appeared to show a Laurel County voter’s choice switch from former President Donald Trump to Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday circulated on social media and even reached Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump.
In response, Taylor Brown, general counsel for the State Board of Elections, shared a statement from the board that said the voter showed the video to election officials at the polling location after she had corrected her selections and printed her ballot successfully.
“According to statements made by the voter to the County Clerk, the voter was able to ultimately use the touchscreen correctly to highlight the field for Donald Trump and every other one of her preferred candidates,” the statement said.
The ExpressVote machine printed a paper ballot “that recorded all of her preferred selections.” The voter had the opportunity to review the ballot before depositing it in an ES&S DS200 ballot scanner. According to statements she gave to the local county clerk, “she was able to deposit her ballot, containing selections for Donald Trump and her other preferred selections into the DS200 ballot scanner successfully, registering her vote,” the board said.
The voter showed the county clerk the video, the statement said. The clerk attempted to recreate the issue with the touchscreen but he could not when touching within the box to select Trump. He could recreate it when touching in between the fields on the machine. Nevertheless the clerk took the machine used out of circulation and contacted the attorney general’s office. An investigator was sent to review the issue.
The board said it “encourages voters in counties using ExpressVote touchscreens to use their finger or a stylus to firmly make their chosen selections within the middle of the field allocated for that candidate or response.” He added that those believing they encountered an issue should report their concern to local election officials and then the attorney general’s election hotline, 1-800-328-VOTE.
“Once the voter left the polling location, she uploaded the media she had captured to her social media accounts, tagging other accounts belonging to influencers known to push claims of election fraud, stating that her video needed to get ‘out there,’” the statement said.
“In the hours after the initial posting of her video, the voter spent time on social media reposting those accounts that had promoted her original video.”
When asked if legal action could be taken against the voter for spreading false information after knowing her vote was properly recorded, Brown said it “will be up to law enforcement officials to decide.”
Trump, the RNC co-chair, said on X that the GOP legal team “ immediately investigated a voter’s report of a machine malfunction that wouldn’t select President Trump in Kentucky. We called election officials directly. They separated the machine, conducted proper testing, didn’t find any errors, and confirmed that voters could cast their ballots properly.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.