Early voting for primary is May 14–16

The por­tal for order­ing mail-in bal­lots has closed, and excused absen­tee vot­ing is already under­way. But there is also anoth­er option for those who can’t or don’t want to go to the polls on Primary Election Day, May 19: ear­ly voting.

“In-per­son, no-excuse ear­ly vot­ing,” as the name implies, doesn’t require an excuse like tra­di­tion­al absen­tee vot­ing does. Anyone who is a reg­is­tered and qual­i­fied local vot­er can vote at the Clark County Courthouse on May 14, 15, or 16. A pho­to ID is required.

The County Clerk’s Office and trained elec­tion work­ers will be con­duct­ing the vot­ing on Thursday and Friday, May 14 and 15, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday, May 16, from 9 to 5 p.m.

On Primary Election Day, May 19, the polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the usu­al precinct loca­tions except for the old Hannah McClure School (now the Cardinal Community Center) and the for­mer Phoenix Academy (now the Cardinal’s Nest). Those two are closed.

Any qual­i­fied Clark County vot­er, regard­less of where in the coun­ty they are reg­is­tered, may vote at the cour­t­house instead of their precinct if they so choose.

Excused absen­tee vot­ing began May 6 at the cour­t­house and con­tin­ues dur­ing reg­u­lar office hours through Friday, May 8, and May 11, 12, and 13.

Excused absen­tee vot­ers must meet one of the state’s cri­te­ria for being excused from reg­u­lar vot­ing, such as being out of town on Election Day or dur­ing ear­ly vot­ing, hav­ing an ill­ness or dis­abil­i­ty, being a care­giv­er for some­one with an ill­ness or dis­abil­i­ty, or being preg­nant in the third trimester. Details are avail­able on the Clark County Clerk’s Office web­site, https://clarkcountyclerk.ky.gov/elections/.

Those with mail-in bal­lots may bring them to the drop box inside the County Clerk’s Office dur­ing busi­ness hours, rather than mail them, if they prefer.

County Clerk Michelle Turner said her office has mailed out a large num­ber of absen­tee bal­lots but hasn’t had many returned yet. Asked whether she is expect­ing a busy elec­tion, she said, “I think it’s going to be pret­ty steady,” but what­ev­er hap­pens, “we’re ready for it.”

On the bal­lot for the pri­ma­ry are coun­ty gov­ern­ment offices, city com­mis­sion seats, and state leg­isla­tive and con­gres­sion­al races.

The dis­trict judge’s race on the bal­lot will not be count­ed because one of the three can­di­dates dropped out, and the remain­ing two will advance to the gen­er­al elec­tion on Nov. 3.