Kentucky Braces For Long Lines As Voters Head To The Polls | Talking Points Memo

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — With only one polling place designated Tuesday for Louisville, a city of 600,000 people, voters who didn’t cast mail-in ballots or show up early could face long lines in Kentucky’s primary, the latest to unfold as the pandemic triggers unprecedented election disruptions across the country.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1316445

“If Charles Booker barely loses, I think the integrity of that election is in question,” Republican state Rep. Jason Nemes said Monday.

I think that statement right there speaks volumes, coming from a republican.

I am skeptical of the single poll showing Booker ahead. His own campaign admits that their internals have him rising, but still down 7 points. McGrath’s campaign is saying their internals have her ahead by double digits.

But I think its pretty clear, McConnell would prefer Booker as an opponent than McGrath.

3 Likes

The Fed judges who are enabling these tactics should not be forced to wait in a line for the gulag.

5 Likes

The Repukes are clearly trying to create anger for McGrath, assuming she defeats Booker in the primary. If blacks stay home in Nov., McConnell will win. Of course, they also will apply voter suppression anywhere they can during the general.

3 Likes

Guys, don’t f*ck this up for us. Kentucky voting today is PROGRESS.

We’ve been in a difficult position in the last few months, pushing hard for improvements in the system. And we’ve come a long way.

  • We won a mail-in option for all Kentuckians for the first time ever.
  • We won free postage on those ballots and drop-off locations in every county.
  • We averted a push for all those drop locations to be located at police stations.
  • We won a postcard mailing to all voters and a pretty significant awareness campaign from the state and groups like KFTC.
  • We won weeks of in-person voting in every county open to all Kentuckians.
  • 889,679 registered voters requested an absentee ballot by the deadline, quite possibly putting us on a path for record voter turnout.
  • Whereas there’s only one Election Day voting location per county in most places, in the case of large counties, these are huge facilities able to accommodate many, many people at once with free public transit going to and from them.

Seriously, the one good thing for KY in this virus debacle might be that we finally get more than one freaking way to vote.

11 Likes

Interestingly enough, I live less than 30 miles south of Lexington, in Madison County. The population is less than 100K while Fayette County, where Lexington is located, is 300K. Madison County has three polling places in various areas of the County, while Fayette has one location. As stated previously, we have had the option of voting by mail, which I did, for the first time EVER!

11 Likes

If McGrath wins by a large margin, the debate will be moot.

Get out and vote.

1 Like

The early voting is a big deal and I was not aware that the one polling place has good public transit access. These things matter.

4 Likes

FREE public transportation to the polling place.

4 Likes

https://twitter.com/Billy_Kobin/status/1275369993132220417

https://twitter.com/i/status/1275369993132220417

2 Likes

I seriously doubt that McConnell would prefer to go against Booker than McGrath. Every Dem opponent Mitch has faced throughout his career has been a moderate and he usually slaughters them. McGrath is making mistake after mistake by not committing to positions and not being authentic. Schumer didn’t endorse McGrath because he thought she’d beat Mitch, Schumer just wanted someone that could make Mitch spend a lot of money that couldn’t be used on other Senate races.

McConnell has never faced a populist challenge from someone like Booker before which is why he’d be a wildcard that could actually give Mitch a run for his money.

1 Like

Pushing 600,000 people through a single polling place, and assuming 1 minute to get your ballot, 1 minute to color in a circle, and 1 minute to have your ballot scanned, will take 3 minutes per person, or 1/20th of an hour. Processing 20 people an hour, everyone will get through in 30,000 hours.

That’s assuming one ballot machine. Assuming 10 ballot machines, we’re down to 3,000 hours.

The line is going to wrap around the building for sure.

To get down to a three hour wait, I hope there are 1,000 polling places in Louisville KY.

But as we know, there aren’t. So either there will be a lot of mail-in ballots or a 0.1 percent turnout.

Who asked this fucker, by the way?

4 Likes

True, the Fayette County voting location is Commonwealth Stadium- which can accommodate 70,000 people; and LexTran is running free bus service to the polling location.

2 Likes

The true irony of that statement is the SOS is a republican- he’s burning one of his own with that comment.

1 Like

As a Louisvillian, I have to say, the primary was moved back a month due to Covid-19. A mail in ballot was made available to all in plenty of time to get it done, there are two places in the city, one in the West End where Black votes are concentrated that had early voting for at least a week, maybe two.

There has been a substantial effort to register voters for years, especially the last 4.

Hate to be a potential a-hole about it, but damn, what more do you want in these Covid-19 times?
Voting is a right and a privilege, if you can’t get it together and make the effort to vote by mail or early voting with over a week without big lines to do it, then that’s on you. There’s a fucking shuttle ride for free. It’s not like you couldn’t watch Gov. Beshear talk about it almost daily all during the shut down.

I’m sure I’m missing something, but in general, if voting means that much, then be diligent about it.

7 Likes

Then we clearly disagree. Kentucky is not some Progressive haven, and I have no doubt, given the lower name recognition, fundraising status and current campaign funds, that Booker would be destroyed in the general by McConnell.

McGrath will still have a hard fight, but she is already polling neck and neck with McConnell, and has considerably more fundraising capacity and money in the bank. Also, she isn’t running as a Progressive that will scare away every Blue Dog Dem in the state…and there are a hell of a lot of them.

1 Like

McConnell is prepared to go against Amy, he’s not against Booker.

1 Like

Her pivot after the primary (assuming she wins) will be interesting.

2 Likes