FRANKFORT, Ky. — More than 2.1 million voters cast ballots this year in Kentucky, either in-person or by absentee.

What You Need To Know

  • More than 2.1 million people voted in Kentucky

  • In 2016 only 1.9 million people voted in the General Election

  • Longest wait time was at Tates Creek Library in Lexington

  • Secretary of State wants to see election process made permanent

 

Secretary of State Michael Adams said even with the record number of voters this year, lines were short.

“The lines were shorter and I think the voters were pretty happy,” Adams said.

1.9 million people voted in the 2016 general election.

Adams said the longest wait to vote was at Tates Creek Library in Lexington, where the line was an hour-long when he checked in on it Tuesday.

Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins said the library was the only site in the county where anyone had to wait for a prolonged time.

“We would try to tell people in line, 'hey, you can go right down the road here and walk in and walk back out' and they just wouldn’t leave. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” so Tate’s Creek Library for us must have pheromones or something that attracts voters. It’s crazy.”

Blevins said there was a rush of voters at the end and the last person out left around 8 p.m. Polls closed at 6 p.m.

Adams said wait times were still shorter than they were for the June primary, helped by expanded early voting.

“Look, you’re going to have lines on Election Day, there’s no way around that. No matter how many days you give people to vote, they’re all going to aggregate on certain days,” Adams said. “I’m just proud that back in 2016, I had to wait in line for three and a half hours to vote for president in a non-pandemic election; this time, I waited for 30 minutes and I got there when the polls opened the first day. We’ve made amazing progress.”

Kentucky expanded early and absentee voting due to the pandemic and also allowed voters to cure absentee ballots, making sure they aren’t thrown out because of an error by the voter.

“We knew that if we had more people voting absentee in this election, we needed a cure process so that we could reach out to voters so they could fix their mistakes and their votes can count,” Adams said.

Around 3,000 ballots have been invalidated but around 1,100 have been fixed, Adams said. Voters have until Nov. 9 to fix any problems.

The process is another thing Adams wants to see state lawmakers make permanent.

“We’ve done this through my decisions as the chief elections official with emergency powers. Those are expiring, and they should, and now it goes to the legislature to make these decisions about what our elections look like permanently,” Adams said. “I don’t want to stay stuck in the 1800s. I think we need a fresher model that recognizes the modern realities of current life.”