Election official says Christian County’s in-person primary voting was successful; absentee tabulations continue to determine outcome

Local election officials will continue scanning and tabulating absentee ballots. Results will be reported to the Kentucky Board of Elections by June 30.

New election procedures that allowed more Kentuckians to vote in the primary without leaving home during the coronavirus pandemic now mean a longer wait to learn the results. 

While voting concluded Tuesday night, counties have another week to report results to the State Board of Elections by June 30. 

“We haven’t tabulated any results from in-house voting or mail-outs,” said Melinda Humphries, who oversees elections for the Christian County Clerk’s Office.

Local election workers still have much more scanning to complete a vote of mail-in ballots that were received Monday and Tuesday, she said. 

Christian County has approximately 53,000 registered voters, and more than 7,000 of them requested absentee, mail-in ballots to vote in the presidential primaries and in races for the U.S. Senate, the state Court of Appeals and in some contested races for Hopkinsville City Council. There was also early voting by appointment at the Christian County Courthouse prior to primary election day Tuesday, when all in-person voting was conducted at one polling place, the James E. Bruce Convention Center. 

“I thought it went very well. We were able to vote many people at once so there was really no line buildup and people were in and out of there very quickly,” Humphries told Hoptown Chronicle. 

(Jennifer P. Brown is the editor and founder of Hoptown Chronicle. Reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org.)

Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.