Sanitizer and social distancing: Clerk shows how in-person voting will look Tuesday
Knox County, like all of Kentucky's counties, will have a much different looking primary amid COVID-based concerns.
KNOX COUNTY, Ky. (WYMT) - Tuesday voters across Kentucky who did not vote absentee will head out to the polls to vote in person, that is if your county has more than one polling location.
Most counties in Kentucky have one polling location, but there are a few exceptions. Knox County is one of a few places to have two different locations. Knox County Clerk Mike Corey asked for five polling locations originally when he was told they would have one. His thinking was he could have one for each of the magistrate’s districts, but he was told he could have two instead.
The two different locations will be at Lynn Camp High School and Knox Central High School. In a normal election, there are about 30 locations.
“The last couple weeks here in the county clerks office have been busy,” Corey said.
Corey is going on 22 years as the county’s clerk. The county usually sends out about 300 absentee ballots in a normal election, this year they have sent out more than 3,750. During a normal presidential primary, they have about a 25-percent voter turnout, this year, they are expecting a similar turnout in the county.
Additionally, they have had about 800 people come in and vote at the courthouse. The results though from both the absentee ballots and the in-house voting will not be released until Tuesday, June 30 at noon.
“We’ve got those out on a daily basis, our staff and our board of elections have worked very hard to keep everything caught up,” he added.
Absentee ballots need to be in by tomorrow at 6 p.m. or have been postmarked by June 23. Corey’s office has until June 27 to count those ballots.
At each in-person site, there are roughly 20 tables to handle voters and 15 election officials working at each location. Corey says he believes this will eliminate any problems, adding that they could cycle through about 100 votes in the span of 15 minutes at a single site.
“They can vote at either one of our sites, here at Lynn Camp high school or at Knox Central High School, pools will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” Corey said.
At each site, people will clean the tables after use, and hand sanitizer is abundant. Each table people will vote at is spread out about six feet.
Knox County has had 15 positive COVID-19 cases since the pandemic started.
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