Early voting started Tuesday and continues for 13 days, a new option for Kentucky voters — and Northern Kentuckians took advantage.
Jim Leursen, Campbell County clerk, reported a large turnout of early voters — 795 with 500 of them before noon.
Gabrielle Summe, Kenton County clerk, reported even bigger numbers — 755 at the Kenton County Administrative Building in Covington and 1,002 at the Independence Senior Center.
Justin Crigler reported more than 1,000 voters.
The deadline has passed to request an absentee ballot by mail for the November general election, but ballots can be mailed (postmarked by 6 p.m. Election Day) or dropped in dropboxes designated by county clerks.
Early voting is one of the four ways Secretary of State Michael Adams has worked with Gov. Andy Beshear to allow voters to participate easily and safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. They included no-excuse absentee balloting, early in-person voting, election day voting and modifying the photo ID requirement when voting in person.
“When’s a good day to vote in-person? Today – and so is tomorrow and the day after. This year you’ve got 19 convenient days to vote in person,” Adams said.
For those who prefer to vote on Election Day itself, county election officials decided on those locations, as well as the number of sites, which required the approval of the State Board of Elections, secretary of state, and governor. In addition, every county will have at least one voting super-center, where everyone from the county can go to vote, regardless of his or her precinct.
Although the General Assembly approved legislation requiring a photo ID to vote, Kentuckians who were unable to get a driver’s licenses or photo ID due to the pandemic because their clerk’s office was closed, or because they were afraid of exposing themselves to COVID-19, can sign a document explaining this concern and still cast their ballot at their polling location.
See The NKyTribune’s Election Guide here for all voting details and candidate information and to find your dropbox locations and polling places.
