Voter turnout exceeds County Clerk’s expectations

May 22, 2019 | 10:00 pm

Updated May 22, 2019 | 11:14 pm

The 18.6 percent voter turnout in Tuesday’s primary election exceeded the expectations of Daviess County Clerk Leslie McCarty.

“I was really hoping for 15 percent,” she told Owensboro Times.

Historically, turnout for the governor’s primary election tends to be low. In 2011, 8.3 percent turned up at the polls and 12.1 percent in 2015.

The percentage of Daviess County voters to show up at the polls was just under the statewide turnout of 19.26 percent, which was also above expectations.

Last week, Kentucky Secretary of State Allison Lundergan Grimes estimated that 12.5 percent of the 3.4 million registered Kentuckians would cast a ballot Tuesday. Instead, 658,979 turned up at the polls across the Commonwealth.

McCarty said that overall the primary election went smoothly, although it had a rocky start.

“Some poll workers did have trouble with the ePollbooks,” she said. “It is hard to get used to new technology.”

This was the first election that all precincts used the new electronic poll books to check in at the polling places. This technology replaces paper roster books, which tended to slow down the voting process.

McCarty said that although the Clerk’s office does train poll workers two weeks prior to the election, some people forget the ins and outs of the technology.

According to McCarty, this was a chance to prepare for November’s general election, when her office will merge precincts, reducing to just 56 locations. With less poll workers required, she hopes to have less technology issues.

“I think the next go around will run much smoother,” she said.

May 22, 2019 | 10:00 pm

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