Kentucky

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For information on state campaign contributions, please visit your state's resource.

Information on local, state and federal candidates and ballot measures may be available here.

To see a list of available races, visit the race index.

Kentucky voters are able to cast their ballot for this November’s election by absentee ballot (return by mail or ballot drop-box). You can find your drop box location here.

Early voting in Kentucky begins 21 days before election day and ends the day before election day. 

The next election date can be found here https://www.vote411.org/kentucky.

Contact your local Board of Elections for more information.

To be eligible to vote you must be:

• A U.S. citizen
• A resident of Kentucky for 28 days before the election
• At least 18 years old by the date of the general election
• Not convicted of a felony (or, if so, have had your civil rights restored)
• Not judged mentally incompetent in a court of law
• Not claiming the right to vote anywhere outside Kentucky

When you register to vote online, you are required to enter you Social Security Number and Date of Birth in order to proceed.

ALERT: Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), voters who do not have acceptable photo ID are able to vote in the November General Election by saying that coronavirus prevented them from getting an ID before Election Day. For additional information please contact your Board of Elections.

Official results are never available on Election Day. Election officials are working around the clock to count an unprecedented number of ballots, and it’s essential that they take the time to make sure every vote is counted.

Official election results will be uploaded on the Kentucky Board of Elections website as they become available. 

You are a Military or Overseas voter if you are in uniformed services, living overseas OR a spouse or dependent of a uniformed services voter. To get registered and vote, you can utilize Overseas Vote Foundation.

If you have additional questions about elections and voting overseas you can use our state specific elections official directory or contact the Overseas Vote Foundation.

In order to be a poll worker in Kentucky, you must:

• Be registered to vote in Kentucky
• Be at least 18 years of age
• Be entitled to compensation
• Political affiliation generally required. You cannot change your part affiliation for one year prior to your appointment as precinct officer.
• Be a resident of the precinct
• Complete required training
• Each precinct allows one minor who is 17 years old to work. All minors who will turn 18 on the day or before the election may serve as an election officer
• Not be a candidate during that election year or be related to a candidate in the precinct

To sign up, contact your local board of elections.

Polls will be open from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm.

You can find your polling place by utilizing your state resource.

If you have further questions on your polling place location, please contact your county clerk.

You can vote on federal offices on a provisional ballot if you live in the precinct and you find yourself under one of the approved circumstances.

Those circumstances are:

• Your name does not appear on the precinct roster and the registration status cannot be determined by the precinct officer
• Your name does not appear on the precinct roster and you have been verified as ineligible to vote
• You do not have identification
• You are voting as a result of a federal or state court order or any order under state law in effect 10 days prior to Election Day which extends polling hours
• You have been challenged by all four precinct election officers

Provisional ballots are counted by 12pm the Friday after the election. If you want to check if your provisional ballot was counted or not, please go to the Kentucky state board of elections Provisional Voter Information page.

Kentucky is required to have a voting machine in each polling place that allows anyone with a disability to cast a ballot free of outside assistance. Nevertheless, if you need assistance due to physical disability, blindness or an inability to read English, you may request voting assistance at the polls on Election Day. Physical disability and blindness are the only two reasons you may apply to the county board of elections for permanent voting assistance. You may receive assistance from someone of your choice or the two election officers at the polls. You may not be assisted by your employer, the employer's agent, a union officer or agent of your union.

For more information, you can utilize the American Association of People With Disabilities (AAPD) resource.

You can now register to vote online! Your completed registration must be mailed or returned at least 29 days before the election.

Employers must allow employees up to 4 hours to vote during their regular work shift.

To verify your voter registration status

The voting systems used in Kentucky are optical scan and DRE.

Optical Scan: With this system, you will receive a card or sheet of paper, which you take over to a private table or booth. The card has the names of the various candidates and ballot measures printed on it. With a pen or pencil you fill in a little box or circle or the space between two arrows. When you are finished filling out all the cards, you may bring the cards over to a ballot box, where poll workers will show you how to put the cards in the box. Or in some places, you may feed the completed cards or papers into a computer device that checks your card or paper right there at the polling place to make sure you have voted the way you want to and counts the votes.

Direct Recording Electronic (DRE): This is the newest kind of system in use in the U.S. All the information about who and what you are voting for is on an electronic screen like a TV or computer screen.

There are many variations of DREs because lots of companies are inventing new ones, and many cities, counties and states are trying them out. Usually, after you have signed in, the poll workers will give you a card that you slide into a device to start your voting session.

Some of these devices will show all of the candidates and ballot choices on one big screen. Often, with these big screen devices you push a button next to the name of the candidate you want to vote for (or yes or no on a ballot measure). On other DREs, the screen is set up to show pages. On each screen or page, there will probably be one thing to vote on. For example, on one screen or page, you might vote for president. Then you might move to the next page to vote for senator. Often these small-screen devices have a touch screen, where you touch the screen next to the name of the person you want to vote for. Other devices have a key pad. And some have a keyboard, so you can write in the name of someone you want to vote for.

You let the system know you are finished voting by pushing a button, touching the screen or entering something on a keypad.

You can learn more about voting systems by checking out the Elections Assistance Commission's (EAC) resource.