The Christian County Board of Elections met Friday for a third session leading up to this year’s general election to process more local absentee ballots. It is tedious work, and there’s more of it this year because voters have more leeway about casting mail-in ballots.
Their goal was to process 1,000 ballots Friday, Deputy County Clerk Melinda Humphries told Hoptown Chronicle shortly after election board members and several helpers gathered in the historic courtroom at the Christian County Courthouse.
“There’s a system to all of this,” said Humphries, who is the local election coordinator.
As ballots are returned to the county clerk’s office in the courthouse — either by mail or hand-delivery to a ballot collection box in the courthouse or the sheriff’s office — they are secured in locked boxes in Humphries’ office until the election board convenes.
Every county has a four-member election board, which includes the county clerk, the sheriff, a Republican representative and a Democratic representative. In Christian County, those members are County Clerk Mike Kem, Sheriff Tyler DeArmond, Republican member Roxane Thomas and Democratic member Jim Gardner.
To count absentee ballots, each election board member may recruit a few helpers. On Friday, for example, DeArmond brought three deputies with him and Thomas and Gardner each brought two local voters.
The process begins with a machine that opens the outer ballot envelope in large batches. Workers then hand remove the inner ballot envelope and pull out the ballot.
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Gardner was feeding the ballots into a scanner, which counts each ballot just as they are typically scanned at in-person polling places.
In some cases, a ballot will be deemed “spoiled” if the paper was accidentally cut in half or if the scanner cannot read the voter’s choices because they did not properly ink in the box beside a candidate’s name. When that happens, a member of the election board obtains a blank ballot from the proper precinct to record the voter’s choices. Then the spoiled ballot is retained and sent to the Kentucky Secretary of State’s office.
In other cases, said Humphries, local election officials will call a voter to come to the courthouse to verify information if there is a problem with their ballot.
The clerk’s office mailed out 5,140 absentee ballots to Christian County voters who requested them for the general election. As of Wednesday, more than 3,000 had been returned.
“I’ve always been interested in the voting process, so I’m glad to be involved this way,” DeArmond said.
He said the primary was “more stressful” for election workers because it was the first time new regulations were in place. Approximately 6,000 mail-in ballots were requested for the primary in Christian County.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Kentucky voters have not been required this year, in either election, to have a special reason to vote absentee or early. And in the general election, there have been more days open for early, in-person voting. Early voting will continue from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day except Sundays through Nov. 2 at the sheriff’s department and the Christian County Senior Citizens Center. Seven polling places will be open on Election Day, Nov. 3.
Local health and election officials are encouraging people to vote early if they can.
Earlier this week, County Health Director Kayla Bebout said if a voter is planning to cast their ballot on Election Day, but discovers before that day they have been infected with the coronavirus or they are a close contact of someone who is infected, their quarantine restrictions would prevent them from going to the polls.
Humphries said voters in that type of situation would be able to request an absentee ballot, but she agreed it’s better if they vote as soon as possible.
All mail-in ballots must be returned in person to the courthouse or the sheriff’s department by Nov. 3, or they must be postmarked by Nov. 3. Those returned in the mail will be counted as long as they are received by Nov. 6, said Humphries.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
