Successful early voting in the Commonwealth

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - It's Election Night eve and according to the Secretary of State's Office, almost 800,000 Kentuckians have already voted either absentee or early in-person. And turnout isn't anticipated to slow down Tuesday.

"I expect more raw numbers of people, what we're seeing in other states is more people voting in 2024, than 2020. My guess is we'll be around 2 and a quarter or 2.3 million total," said Secretary of State Michael Adams.

Fayette County Clerk Susan Lamb said she's proud of how early voting went this year. She said they learned things they'll replicate for future elections and a few things they might do differently.

"Thursday, I think we all had our eyes bugging because we were all just shocked. I hope that continues in a very good, positive way tomorrow."

Lamb said having every library branch open created flexibility and accessibility. She knows lines were long, especially the first day, but extra tables and booths were brought in where needed.

She said with 3 days of early voting and 6 days of in-person excused voting, the county had a 12.6 percent turnout. For comparison, the 2023 primaries saw a 12.8 percent turnout, total.

"We received the largest amount of absentee ballot requests historically ever. Aside from 2020 when everything was processed with an absentee ballot. We have 12,157 absentee ballots issued, and today, we have received back 11,362 of those."

All 6 library branches, plus every precinct, will be open Tuesday, 135 voting locations in total.