Voters filed in to polling places across Kentucky on Tuesday to cast ballots during the state’s primary election, with initial estimates pointing to a record high voter turnout.
Final results of the election will be released in coming days as officials count mail-in ballots, which all Kentucky voters had the opportunity to cast this year in an effort to reduce exposure to the coronavirus.
And despite warnings from national political figures about chaos at the polls, things went pretty smoothly in Kentucky, though the election did have its hiccups.
Most of the state’s 120 counties only had one polling place, prompting worries of long lines and confusion ahead of the election.
In Lexington, there was a long line most of the day outside of the county’s sole polling place at Kroger Field on the University of Kentucky campus, with reports of a near two-hour wait and voters having to wait in the rain.
Leonore Crutchfield waited two hours to vote with her three kids, but she said it was worth it.
“Us standing in line for two hours is nothing compared to people who got shot and killed, dogs turned on them, hoses turned on them to vote,” Crutchfield said. “So, my two hours in line, even though I got a bad ankle, I’m gonna do it. Because what else are you gonna do?”
About 25% of Kentucky’s 3,476,393 registered voters requested mail-in ballots for the primary election and as of Monday, county clerks said they had received about half of them.
Ballots had to be postmarked by June 23 and clerks’ offices around the state will continue to receive them over the coming days.
(This story first ran on Kentucky Public Radio.)
