Now it’s on to November

On the morn­ing of the pri­ma­ry elec­tions, I was at a polling place talk­ing with an elec­tion work­er when a young man who was leav­ing stopped beside me, turned, and told the oth­er vot­ers in line that he had been “dis­en­fran­chised” because he was an independent.

Well, no, he hadn’t.

If he is a prop­er­ly reg­is­tered vot­er, he will be allowed to vote in the gen­er­al elec­tion in November. But pri­ma­ry elec­tions are how we choose can­di­dates for the fall. In par­tic­u­lar, par­ti­san pri­maries are how par­ties choose their nom­i­nees. So if you are reg­is­tered as an inde­pen­dent, i.e., a mem­ber of no par­ty, then you don’t have a say in who a par­ty nom­i­nates. You must wait until November and choose from among the nominees.

Primary primer

Some states have made it con­fus­ing because they do allow inde­pen­dents to vote in either Democratic or Republican pri­maries. But that makes no sense. It’s like being able to vote for the vestry of a church that you aren’t a mem­ber of and don’t even attend.

Where is the log­ic in that?

The oth­er thing that might bar you from vot­ing in an elec­tion is your res­i­den­cy. You can’t vote for a can­di­date in a dis­trict where you don’t live.

Any reg­is­tered vot­er, includ­ing inde­pen­dents and mem­bers of third par­ties, may vote in non­par­ti­san pri­maries, such as those for city offices and judgeships.

Nonpartisan pri­maries are intend­ed to “nar­row the field.” For exam­ple, in years like this one, when more than eight can­di­dates file for seats on the non­par­ti­san Winchester Board of Commissioners, there will be an at-large pri­ma­ry in which city res­i­dents who are vot­ers (regard­less of par­ty affil­i­a­tion) may vote for up to four can­di­dates. Then the eight can­di­dates who receive the most votes advance to the November race, when vot­ers will choose the final four.

City elections

In this year’s city pri­ma­ry, two can­di­dates, Tim Cornett and Robin Kunkel, didn’t make the top eight and so were eliminated.

Those who did make the cut were incum­bents Kitty Strode, Hannah Toole, and Joe Chenault, as well as chal­lengers Jim Caldwell, James Bowman, Tara Asbury, for­mer Commissioner Kenny Book, and Ralph Harrison.

One com­mis­sion can­di­date, Logan Hall, dropped out because he was appoint­ed the county’s emer­gency man­age­ment director.

Because there were only two can­di­dates for may­or, incum­bent JoEllen Reed and chal­lenger Perry Williams, there was no pri­ma­ry for that race. Both will advance to the fall.

If there had been three or more can­di­dates for may­or, there would have been a pri­ma­ry race.

Voters’ verdict

Also, there was orig­i­nal­ly going to be a pri­ma­ry for dis­trict judge of the 25^th District, 1^st Division, because three can­di­dates filed, and the pri­ma­ry would have nar­rowed it to two. But because one of the can­di­dates, Micah Johnson, dropped out, the pri­ma­ry was can­celed, and the oth­er two can­di­dates, Judge Tyler Frazier and attor­ney Darrian Botts, will both advance to the November election.

Frazier was appoint­ed to the posi­tion by Gov. Andy Beshear when Judge Charles W. Hardin resigned in 2024, and he was lat­er elect­ed chief judge by the oth­er judges in the district.

Judicial can­di­dates for the 2^nd Division, Robert Jennings, and the third, Earl-Ray Neal, also filed for re-elec­tion but drew no opposition.

What made that race con­fus­ing for some vot­ers was that Johnson’s with­draw­al came too late to remove his name from the bal­lot, so vot­ers could still vote for the judi­cial can­di­dates in the pri­ma­ry, but their votes didn’t count.

The 25^th Judicial District cov­ers Clark and Madison counties.

Also on the Nov. 3 bal­lot will be the race for the Kentucky Court of Appeals, District 5, Division 1. The can­di­dates are the incum­bent, Judge Will Moynahan, and Judge Lucy Ferguson VanMeter, a cir­cuit court judge and the wife of for­mer Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter of Winchester.

The 5^th District cov­ers Bourbon, Clark, Fayette, Franklin, Jessamine, Madison, Scott, and Woodford counties.

There are no races for Clark County this year for cir­cuit court judge, fam­i­ly court judge, or jus­tice of the state Supreme Court.

County races

Several can­di­dates filed for this year’s elec­tion whose names were not on the bal­lot because they were unop­posed in the primaries.

What was unusu­al was that in the con­tests for coun­ty offices, there wasn’t a sin­gle Democratic can­di­date on the pri­ma­ry bal­lot. That’s because for each coun­ty office, either no Democrat filed or only one did. And pri­ma­ry bal­lots only show races with opposition.

Some Republican can­di­dates were also unop­posed in the pri­ma­ry, and a few can­di­dates from both par­ties will be unop­posed in the gen­er­al elec­tion as well.

In fact, no one filed to run against four cur­rent coun­ty offi­cials: County Attorney William Elkins, Sheriff Berl Perdue, and Coroner Neal Oliver, all Republicans, and County Clerk Michelle Turner, a Democrat. But even though they have no oppo­si­tion now, their names will be on the bal­lot in November because it’s pos­si­ble some­one could file as a write-in can­di­date for one of those races.

The dead­line to file as a write-in is Aug. 24.

A few can­di­dates for the Clark County Fiscal Court faced no chal­lengers in the pri­ma­ry but will be on the Nov. 3 ballot.

In the 1^st Magisterial District, Democrat Jeannie Gwynne will face Republican Scott Hisle. Both were unop­posed in their pri­maries. The dis­trict seat is vacant because the incum­bent, Daniel Konstantopoulos, chose to run for state rep­re­sen­ta­tive instead.

In the 2^nd District, Republican Bryan Howard, who won his party’s pri­ma­ry in a three-way race to unseat the incum­bent, Earnest Pasley, faces no Democratic oppo­si­tion on Nov. 3, unless there is a write-in.

Similarly, Districts 3 and 5 will have new Republican mag­is­trates unless a write-in wins those races.

Ben Moberly in District 3 faces no Democratic oppo­si­tion for the seat left vacant by Steve Craycraft, who chose to run for coun­ty judge-exec­u­tive. And Mike Flynn, who unseat­ed incum­bent Magistrate Chris Davis in District 5, faces no Democrat in the fall.

Two incum­bent mag­is­trates had no oppo­si­tion in the pri­ma­ry and also face none in the gen­er­al. They are 4^th District Magistrate Mark Miller, a Republican, and 6^th District Magistrate Robert Blanton, a Democrat.

Vaché King, Democratic can­di­date for coun­ty judge-exec­u­tive, had her party’s lane all to her­self in the pri­ma­ry, but she will now go up against Justin Charles, who won the Republican nom­i­na­tion for coun­ty judge in a four-way race.

Interestingly, four years ago, Charles was the Democratic nom­i­nee for coun­ty judge, hav­ing defeat­ed King in the 2022 pri­ma­ry, but after the elec­tion, he changed parties.

Charles lost in the 2022 gen­er­al elec­tion to Les Yates, who resigned in January to run for state representative.

Four years ago, Jada Brady, who is cur­rent­ly the prop­er­ty val­u­a­tion admin­is­tra­tor, nar­row­ly defeat­ed then-incum­bent Jason Neely. This year, Brady won the Republican pri­ma­ry and will face Neely, the Democratic can­di­date, in a rematch.

Jailer Frank Doyle, a Democrat, faced no intra-par­ty oppo­si­tion for his re-elec­tion, but he will have a Republican chal­lenger in the fall, Chris Grant, who was also unop­posed in his primary.

No con­sta­ble can­di­dates have any oppo­si­tion in November. 

In the 4^th District, incum­bent David Puckett, a Republican, has with­drawn or been dis­qual­i­fied because he no longer lives in the dis­trict after the bound­aries were redrawn for redis­trict­ing in 2023. He plans to file as a write-in can­di­date for District 5 by the Aug. 24 deadline.

The 4^th District also has a write-in can­di­date, Jerry Tackett.

The oth­er Republicans, Travis Jay McIntosh in the 2^nd District, Shelby Lynn Toler II in the 3^rd, and William Frank Kennon in the 6^th, are all unopposed.

No one filed for con­sta­ble of the 1^st District.

Legislative races

State Sen. Greg Elkins, R‑Winchester, wasn’t on the pri­ma­ry bal­lot because he was unop­posed for the Republican nom­i­na­tion. He is also unop­posed in November, but will be on the ballot.

His 28^th District includes Bath, Clark, Menifee, and Montgomery coun­ties and part of Fayette County.

County Magistrate Daniel Konstantopoulos won the Republican pri­ma­ry for state rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the 28^th District of the Kentucky House, and Chelsea Kirk won the Democratic pri­ma­ry for that seat. They will face off in the gen­er­al election.

Democrat Zach Dembo, a for­mer fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor, will face Republican Ralph Alvarado, a for­mer state sen­a­tor, for the 6^th District U.S. House seat.

Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Barr will face Democrat Charles Booker, a for­mer state rep­re­sen­ta­tive, for the U.S. Senate seat that will be vacat­ed at the end of the year by retir­ing Sen. Mitch McConnell, for­mer major­i­ty leader.

School board races

So far, only one can­di­date has filed for the Clark County Board of Education: Carl David Kiser, who is a can­di­date for the 1^st District seat in the non­par­ti­san race.

School board terms are stag­gered, and the two dis­tricts that are up for elec­tion this year are 1 and 4. The dead­line to file for the school board is June 2.

June 2 is also the dead­line for can­di­dates for soil and water con­ser­va­tion districts.

About independants

Getting back to inde­pen­dents, June 2 is also the dead­line for inde­pen­dent and third-par­ty can­di­dates to file to run in the gen­er­al elec­tion. But there’s a catch — to run as an inde­pen­dent, a can­di­date must have been reg­is­tered as an inde­pen­dent by the end of the day on Dec. 31, 2025.

It’s the same if she or he wants to run as a Libertarian, a Green, or whatever.

Under Kentucky law, there are only two par­ties that are called “par­ties”: Democrats and Republicans. What we call third par­ties, Kentucky state law refers to as polit­i­cal orga­ni­za­tions or groups. And it some­times lumps them all into the cat­e­go­ry of “oth­er.”

Those oth­er groups don’t choose their nom­i­nees in state- and coun­ty-run pri­ma­ry elec­tions, but by oth­er means, such as cau­cus­es or conventions.

An actu­al polit­i­cal par­ty in Kentucky is defined as a polit­i­cal enti­ty whose can­di­date in the most recent pres­i­den­tial elec­tion received at least 20 per­cent of the total votes cast for that office.

What’s iron­ic about that is that inde­pen­dents and oth­ers are the fastest-grow­ing vot­er bloc in Kentucky. The num­ber of inde­pen­dent vot­ers is surg­ing, even if the num­ber of inde­pen­dent can­di­dates isn’t.

According to the Office of the Secretary of State, about 380,000 Kentucky vot­ers, or 11 per­cent of the total, are reg­is­tered as “oth­er,” and most are inde­pen­dents. According to the nation­al non­prof­it group Open Primaries, Kentucky is one of only 16 states that have closed primaries.

In an arti­cle for Spectrum News, Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican who favors open pri­maries, said that “if you’re an inde­pen­dent vot­er … we shouldn’t dis­en­fran­chise you.”

I dis­agree. As I said before, I don’t think it’s dis­en­fran­chis­ing a vot­er who opts out of the two-par­ty sys­tem to say that he or she can’t par­tic­i­pate in a party’s nom­i­na­tion process.

However, I do think Kentucky is an out­lier, and I have some ideas for reform­ing it. I’ll share those in my next column.

Correction: An ear­li­er ver­sion of this sto­ry said that 4^th District Constable David Puckett had drawn a write-in chal­lenger, Jerry Tackett. Puckett is no longer on the bal­lot for that dis­trict because he no longer lives with­in its redrawn bound­ary lines. However, he said he plans to file as a write-in can­di­date for the 5^th District, which is where his home is now.

About Reporter’s Notebook: Randy Patrick is a free­lance jour­nal­ist who cov­ers issues per­tain­ing to gov­ern­ment, pol­i­tics, and civic engage­ment for WinCity Voices. His reg­u­lar beat is straight news report­ing, but from time to time, he writes an opin­ion or analy­sis col­umn explain­ing the sto­ries behind the sto­ries and describ­ing his expe­ri­ences as a reporter.