Election Day is this Tuesday and, so far, County Clerk Leslie McCarty and Deputy Clerk Richard House say they are expecting a fairly low turnout, even with a highly divisive governor’s race happening between incumbent Matt Bevin and Democratic candidate Andy Beshear.
Though House said he expects 34-35 percent voter turnout, the County Clerk’s office has received more absentee votes than in past elections. The clerk’s office is also seeing more registered voters in this election.
“Absentee votes are, so far, a little heavier than last year,” he said. “We also have 3,000 more voters registered than four years ago.”
Daviess County has a little over 75,000 registered voters for this election compared to 72,000 in the 2015 governor election. But the question is, will that increase in registered voters mean higher voter turnout at the polls?
House said he’s still not sure the clerk’s office will see a significant increase in voter turnout, but that a late onslaught of campaign-related television ads could possibly bring more people to the polls.
“”I think a lot of people say they hate negative ads on TV, but they obviously work or they wouldn’t be running them,” he said. “It’s been a cage match between the two governor candidates.”
McCarty said a reminder email will be sent out Monday encouraging every registered voter to go vote on Tuesday. McCarty and House made some changes to the voting precincts this year in an effort to streamline the process. Instead of 85 voting precincts, there are now 56.
“Each one is a legislative district,” McCarty said. “It makes it easier on everyone. If we ever go to voter supercenters, people here will be kind of used to it.”
House said it can be frustrating to see low voter turnout after all the work that goes into running an election each year. One year, the governor race saw only 8 percent voter turnout in Daviess County, he said.
“I’m sure it’s depressing to the candidates too,” he said. “An election costs $130,000 every time, and that’s taxpayer money, so we encourage everybody to go vote on Tuesday.”
