FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — More than 670,000 Kentuckians voted in the May primary election. A few reported problems with the ballots, like receiving the wrong one. But Secretary of State Michael Adams said those issues were honest mistakes that were mostly fixed.
"We’re talking about one precinct here or there, out of the entire state of almost 4,000 precincts, had an issue with one poll worker making a mistake. But nothing systemic," explained Secretary of State Michael Adams.
If you’re wondering: how does someone get the wrong ballot? Adams said the answer is human error. He emphasized that Kentucky’s elections are made possible thanks to poll workers, who are just volunteers. And they occasionally make a mistake.
"You always have human error here or there by a poll worker," said Adams. "But those are isolated situations."
The good news is most of the ballot issues were quickly fixed, according to Adams. He emphasized that people can receive a new ballot if there's an error, as long as their ballot has not been fed into the machine and recorded. So, it's important to know what your ballot should look like, and Adams says everyone in Kentucky can look up their sample ballot online.
"It is on the onus of the voter to look at the ballot," said Adams. "Make sure it’s the right one."
Other than the few ballot issues, Adams said the election went well. But he did pick up on a few things he'd like to improve on for November. The biggest one is the number of voting locations. Adams says Kentucky needs more of them.
"We’re going to have to have more locations for November. We had a light turnout, so the locations we had for May were adequate, but they won’t be adequate for the turnout we’ll have in the general election," he explained.
