Record number of Jefferson County absentee ballots returned in June's primary election

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A record number of people in Jefferson County voted in last month's primary election.

Pat Mathison, a longtime Jefferson County voter, was one of thousand do so via an absentee ballot. It was the first time she'd done so.

"I normally go to the polls," Mathison said.

But this year, the COVID-19 pandemic closed all but one of Jefferson County's polling stations. That sent several thousand people to the fairgrounds to cast their ballots.

Mathison was not one of them.

"I just thought that that was going to logistically be a nightmare," she said. "The day before the last day to vote, the actual voting day, we checked online, and our vote had been counted, received and processed."

Nore Ghibaudy, director communications, media and public relations at the Jefferson County Clerk's Office, said the increased voter turnout came from absentee ballots.

"On election day, we had close to 15,000 people vote in person at the exposition center. We had 11,000 people prior to that," he said. "Over one-third of the voters turned out for this election."

This is a breakdown of the numbers from the clerk's office:

1. How many absentee ballots were requested in:

(a) the most recent statewide primary: 230,854

(b) the 2018 general election: 4,403

2. How many absentee ballots were returned in:

(a) the most recent statewide primary: 189,010

(b) the 2018 general election: 3,683

3. How many absentee ballots were counted or rejected (or the rate of rejection) in:

(a) the most recent statewide primary: 8,381

(b) the 2018 general election: 294

"That's the largest number we've had for any primary," Ghibaudy said. "That's more people reaching out to say 'I'm going to vote' than any other primary in Kentucky's history."