Daviess County Clerk Leslie McCarty said the poll worker who was caught electioneering has not faced any legal consequences at this point, and that County Attorney Claud Porter will help determine a course of action during the Board of Elections meeting next month.
“They definitely will never be a poll worker again, but whether it’s prosecution or not, that’s up to Claud,” McCarty said.
The incident occurred at the Third Baptist Church on Election Day. The poll worker reportedly made a statement to a voter regarding Kentucky Constitutional Amendment 2. The poll worker was removed from the polling place immediately upon McCarty being notified.
On Election Day, McCarty stated the actions were “illegal” and against what all poll workers are taught by Porter leading up to the election.
By Kentucky statute, electioneering is defined as “the displaying of signs, the distribution of campaign literature, cards, or handbills, the soliciting of signatures to any petition, or the solicitation of votes for or against any bona fide candidate or ballot question in a manner which expressly advocates the election or defeat of the candidate or expressly advocates the passage or defeat of the ballot question…”
The Davies County Board of Elections has not met since the election but is scheduled to meet on December 13.
At that meeting, the board will also review other aspects of the election. McCarty noted a 51% voter turnout, and said of the 55 voters affected by a coding error, 30 of them stopped by the courthouse to resolve the situation.
This year’s election brought some other takeaways for McCarty, most notably the desire for more input regarding voting locations. She hopes to have some community leaders attend the December meeting and other future meetings.
“I’m going to reach out to some of the community leaders that had concerns and see if they would like to come to the board meeting and give their input on places that we might be able to consider,” McCarty said. “We can maybe have a little bit of collaboration because [using polling centers instead of precincts] is all new to us.”
