Ohio County will have two voting sites in November

County Clerk Bess Ralph gave an election report to the Ohio County Fiscal Court last week with details of how November’s General Election is planned to go because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ralph told the court the Board of Elections has decided to have two voting sites in Ohio County for the November election at Ohio County High School and Fordsville Elementary.

Early voting will also begin at the clerk’s office at the courthouse on Oct. 13. Absentee ballots can be requested at govoteky.com and clicking “absentee ballot request.”

Ralph said that she wanted to offer early voting in Fordsville as well, but since her office is shorthanded she is unsure if that would be a possibility.

While the primary election in June went well with just one voting site, Ralph told the court her office anticipates a larger voter turn out for the general election.

“It all went well during the primary. It went really, really good, but we are expecting three times as much the volume this time,” she told the court.

Ralph said because the voting stations and the workers have to be six feet apart, the Board of Elections decided to go to the Fordsville Elementary gym rather than the fire department to allow more space to social distance.

Secretary of State Michael Adams announced Monday that Kentucky’s number of registered voters increased slightly following the June primary election. From June 24, when the voter rolls reopened after the primary through July 31, a net 21,548 voters were added for a current total of 3,497,941 registered voters.

Adams reported Republicans added 20,597 registrants; Other added 1,985; Democratic registration declined by 1,034.

By contrast, over June and July last year, 167,044 net new voters were added to the rolls.

“Voter registration is slowly recovering from the effects of the pandemic,” said Secretary Adams. “As we recognize National Voter Registration Month in September, let’s work to encourage all eligible Kentuckians to register at govoteky.com.”