The new online portal where Kentuckians can apply for an absentee ballot for the June primary election is now live.
All registered Republicans and Democrats are eligible to request an absentee ballot at govoteky.com, where voters can also verify their personal information and registration.
Those without access to the internet can call the Daviess County Clerk’s office at 270-240-5771 to request a ballot.
The deadline to register to vote in the primary is 4 p.m. May 26. The deadline to apply for a ballot is 11:59 p.m. June 15.
There will be numerous safety measures in place to ensure a fair election and eliminate any attempts at fraud, according to Secretary of State Michael Adams.
That starts with requiring voters to request a ballot rather than mailing them to every household automatically.
“I understand that’s a little bit inconvenient, but we’ve got to verify the identity of a voter so we don’t have vote fraud and so that the citizens can have confidence in the results,” Adams said.
Bar codes will also be on the ballots so they may be tracked. Adams said that allows the state to ensure the ballots did not get lost in the mail, and it helps make sure a large number of ballots aren’t wrongly sent to the same address.
Also, both the outer and inner envelopes must be signed so the ballot can be verified by election officials.
Ballots must be postmarked by June 23 and received by June 27 to be counted, and they can be returned by mail using prepaid postage. Ballots can also be left in the drop box by June 23 at the Daviess County Courthouse.
There will also be some in-person absentee voting allowed June 1-22 at the Courthouse by appointment only for eligible voters, including those with disabilities. Appointments can be made by calling 270-240-5771.
Adams said the state is encouraging everyone who is able to absentee vote so there aren’t overly long lines on Election Day due to safety and distancing guidelines that will be in place.
“Election Day is going to look a lot different,” he said. “We’re still working on what that looks like precisely. What we don’t want to see is people overloading the polling sites.
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