FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Board of Elections Chairman, Ben Chandler, said the much anticipated site to request absentee ballots for the June 23rd Primary Election is ready to go. Governor Andy Beshear made the announcement Friday during his daily COVID-19 briefing.
We had been hitting “refresh” on the election portal throughout the afternoon after being told that the site was ready, but outside of seeing one glitchy looking change to the screen, the site was unchanged.
You must be a registered voter to make the request. HURRY! THE DEADLINE TO REGISTER IS TUESDAY, MAY 26.
The portal will close Monday, June 15.
We asked Chairman Chandler whether he thought the site was ready.
“We hope so”, he responded. “Am I confident? Yes. You can never tell about these things, you can never be 100 percent sure about much of anything, but we feel pretty confident that it's been tested and retested and tested again.”
The move is seen as a necessity since nearly all 120 Kentucky counties is expected to limit polling places. Many volunteer workers are in COVID-19 high risk groups and can't help.
Jefferson County's plan to only use one site, the Expo Center, has raised questions by the Secretary of State. Thursday, Democrat State Representative Attica Scott and Republican Representative Jason Nemes sent a joint letter to the Board of Elections and Secretary of State expressing "extreme concern" with the plan, suggesting that they know there are limitations but asking for a new plan with more locations.
The Jefferson County Clerk's Office has highly recommended voting by absentee and received a flood of a request to their site.
Chairman Chandler only commented that they're still looking at the county’s plans, then echoed the absentee push.
“The point that I want to make is that people need to take the vote at home option whenever they can and that's the important thing”, said Chandler.
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