LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Voting for Kentucky's Primary election is over, but some candidates could wait another week for final results.
Anyone was able to get an absentee for Tuesday's primary election in Kentucky because of the coronavirus pandemic. In Jefferson County, 218,000 absentee ballots were requested and sent. The county's board of elections spokesman, Nore Ghibaudy, tells WDRB the process to get those absentee votes tallied is much more tedious than in-person voting.
"They, first of all, scan that it came back in. There's a bar code there. Then after they look at that signature to see if it matches your voter registration card. If it does not, they call. And it's done by a bipartisan team. That's to verify the person that mailed that ballot is that person," Ghibaudy said.
The election center's website has a live feed of the absentee processing center where two people -- one Republican and one Democrat -- sit at each table opening ballots one-by-one. As of earlier this week, Jefferson County had opened and processed more than 80,000 mail-ins. Those forms are eventually fed into a voting machine like the ones that were used at the Kentucky Exposition Center for in-person voting on Tuesday.
Just under 15,000 people voted at the Expo Center on Election Day, including a group of nearly 200 who were allowed in after the 6 p.m. deadline because they sat in traffic outside the Fairgrounds. There were also another 1,100 people who voted there during the six early days of voting. With those numbers and the number of mail-in ballots expected, Jefferson County is on-track to see its highest voter turnout for a primary since 1980. The state as a whole is on-track for record numbers as well.
But final vote tallies won't be confirmed until early next week, since the absentee ballots had a mail-in deadline of Election Day.
Until all of the ballots are counted, the election center is working 12-hour shifts. Officials are confident they will have results to the state board of elections by Tuesday, June 30.
Despite the positive outlook from county and state leaders on how the primary election worked, many voters claim they hit roadblocks and issues that leave them concerned whether or not their votes actually count.
Summer Dickerson is the founder of Women of the Well, a nonprofit organization that supports those breaking free from the world of sex trafficking. She is also considered a community activist, involved with the recent protests for Breonna Taylor. Dickerson has been encouraging everyone in the last few weeks to vote if they really want to see change in Louisville.
However, after Tuesday's primary, she said she was disappointed and her heart broke.
"We have to do something better," said Dickerson. "Because if we're out here advocating to get people to vote and that their vote matters, we need to make sure that we are actually organized."
Dickerson drove a group of women involved in the program to the Kentucky Exposition Center so they could vote Tuesday. She said after waiting in a line of traffic for over an hour, she parked the car at the back of the lot by 5:50 p.m.
Tuesday's primary was open from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and the women ran inside the Expo Center with minutes to spare. Dickerson said although the polls had been open for six days of early voting, not everyone knew about the option. She said with having only one polling location in Jefferson County, the hours should have been extended.
Voters were still filing into the Expo Center minutes after 6 o'clock. Once the doors were closed, a large group gathered outside and started banging on the glass doors. A judge ordered that voters on the property directly in front of the Expo Center be allowed back inside to vote and that the doors would be closed again at 6:30 p.m.
"It shouldn't take people banging on the door saying, 'Hey! I was on the property by 6 o'clock. I can't help that there's tons of traffic. Let me in so I can vote,'" Dickerson said.
Charles Booker's campaign filed an emergency petition to extend voting until 9 p.m. The campaign also posted on social media encouraging voters to stay in line, because the doors would be reopened. However, a judge denied that request.
Ghibaudy told WDRB News Wednesday morning that the clerk's office did everything possible to allow people to vote and that people were still inside voting when he left the Expo Center at 9:15 p.m.
Along with the confusion on when polls closed, Dickerson said there was a ballot issue with one of the women in her program. The issue was resolved, and everyone in the group was able to vote. However, Dickerson said, the number of issues she witnessed Tuesday concerned her. She believes voter confidence could sink ahead of November's presidential election.
"We need to adjust some things so that everybody's voice matters," she said. "We live in a community that's already struggling with leadership. And then you tell people to vote. And they're not able to vote. What do you think that leaves the community with? We got to do better Kentucky. We got to do better."
Dickerson said she does not believe the blame belongs with the poll workers, who were following order, but with county leaders and the Kentucky State Board of Elections.
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