LEXINGTON, Ky. – Even with the use of new voting machines in the primary, problems reported in Fayette County on election day were not machine related.
What You Need To Know
- No major problems reported other than ballot mix up at one polling place
- More than 20 complaints from Fayette County made to attorney general's office on Election Day
- Fayette County Clerk said some problems are common and expected
- Most issues rectified early on Election Day
Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins said there were problems reported, but they were minor.
“There have been a lot of unusual issues today,” Blevins said this past Tuesday after the polls closed. “They are mostly around election officers learning new equipment and voters using new equipment, all that sort of thing. But all in all, I'm not aware of anything that would affect the election, except for the ballot mix up at Lansdowne Elementary.”
Blevins was referring to a problem with some residents receiving ballots for a different precinct and casting votes for the wrong person or being unable to vote for their preferred candidate at all in Fayette County’s District 4 urban council race. How to rectify the situation will be determined by a judge.
Seventy-one voters voted for candidates in the wrong precinct for about four hours, Blevins said, and while he initially expected a negligible impact, the race between the second- and third-place candidates was affected. With the top-two vote-getters earning a spot on the ballot in November, Brenda Monarrez came in first with 1,121 votes, but the second- and third-place candidates, Barry Saturday and J. “Brack” Marquette, were separated by just 34 votes.
“There were a couple of little glitchy, hiccup things, but nothing we haven’t dealt with before and they are pretty common,” said Meredith Watson, land records manager in the Fayette County clerk’s office. “Those were all fixed by 7:15 a.m.”
There were 26 complaints from Fayette County made to the Kentucky Attorney General’s law violation hotline, including two residency complaints before the election and one legal question after. The 23 complaints made on election day from Fayette County included nine reports of electioneering, six campaign violations, four procedural questions, two complaints about election officials, one legal question and one complaint about voter assistance.
Blevins said minor problems during elections are expected and normal, but he expects those to decrease as election workers and voters get more familiar with the new machines and proper protocol.
“We had some reports about signs within 100 yards of polling locations and things like that,” Blevins said. “Everything went smoothly overall.”