KENTUCKY — The May 17 primary is just days away and people living in all 120 counties of the Commonwealth will soon vote to determine which candidates will appear on November’s general election ballot.
This year’s election will be different with early voting and several new, first-time procedures in some locations across the state.
During this In Focus Kentucky segment, Secretary of State Michael Adams (R) joins the program to explain how to vote in the 2022 Primary Election.
“Kentuckians have never had a more secure or a more accessible process than we’ve had. In my term. We’ve expanded voting. We’ve also taken steps to make the election more secure, at the same time. Those are not contradictory goals. Those are goals that we had, that we’ve implemented. This is the first election in this millennium, that since at least the 1800s, where Kentuckians, as a matter of right, have more than one day to go out and vote. And you don’tI’ve had to have an excuse. You don’t have a reason or tell anyone your reason, just pick a day,” says Secretary Adams.
There are four ways you can vote in the 2022 Kentucky primary:
In-person, excused, absentee early voting before Election Day will take place on May 4-6 and May 9–11
In-person, no-excuse, absentee early voting before Election Day will take place May 12-14
You can also vote by using mail-in absentee ballot (return by mail or ballot drop-box)
In-person voting will take place on Election Day, May 17
Secretary Adams also adds that this year, Kentucky’s voting system has never been more secure.
“There’s a lot of irresponsible chatter out there and demagoguery about us having hacked elections. It’s all hogwash. Our elections have never been hacked and are not hacked now. But it’s easier for me to explain to constituents that elections can’t be hacked. If I can point to a law and say look here, it says, these machines can’t be connected to the internet. In fact, it’s now a felony to connect any of our machines to the internet, so Kentuckians can be confident in that system... Last year in 2021, we had an omnibus election reform bill done in a bipartisan way, the Governor, me and Democrats, Republicans all together. And one of the centerpieces of that bill was we said that we’re going to transition to completely paper based balloting away from electronic machines. Because even without regard to all the demagoguery about election hacking, the truth is, voters trust a piece of paper. They just do. And I heard that before 2020. They’ve always thought that,” explains Sec. Adams.
To learn more information about voter precincts, candidate information for your area or to preview what a sample ballot will look like this year, click here.
You can watch the full In Focus segment in the player above.