The Latest in Kentucky

I’ll have a much longer post about this on Wednesday, but Joe Sonka and Phillip Bailey do a good job of laying out the current voting situation in Kentucky:

While national Democrats, athletes and celebrities are saying Kentucky’s rescheduled primary is an attempt at voter suppression, the Bluegrass State is on its way to a possible record turnout in Tuesday’s primary election.

Kentucky received high marks months ago when Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams agreed to allow registered voters to mail in absentee ballots to avoid in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the plan, Kentuckians have also been allowed to vote in-person since June 15, a week ahead of the new primary date.

“If the governor and I are both suppressors, we’re doing a terrible job because we’ve got the highest turnout we’ve ever seen — and that’s the bottom line,” Adams told The Courier Journal on Monday.

Critics of Kentucky’s plan have ranged in the past few days from NBA star LeBron James to former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Adams said as of Saturday, nearly 1 million Kentuckians — 973,807 — have either requested an absentee ballot or voted early before Tuesday’s primary. As of Monday morning, county clerks across the state had received nearly 443,000 of those ballots back in the mail. 

The high-water mark for a Kentucky primary election came in 2008, when 922,456 residents voted.

Lotta folks out there not just making themselves look like idiots, but also making the job of county clerks across Kentucky very difficult by encouraging well-meaning phone calls that take time to deal with.