prefer to vote on Election Day?

Well, if you're comparing apples and apples, we've got three cycles to look at, 2022, 23, and then this year.

Those are non-presidential elections.

And in 2022, Republicans had more early voters than Democrats.

In 2023, Democrats had more early voters than Republicans.

And then this time it was more Democrats.

But you're talking about 10,000.

but

But

we had lines in early voting, too.

They move very quickly.

People say there's a line, but you're done in five minutes.

There are certain locations that are just very popular that tend to have a lot of people show, and they'll have longer lines.

But I'm not hearing anything – actually, I'm not hearing much nationally of this either, but I'm not hearing anything in Kentucky about lines long enough.

People are getting frustrated.

I

Is that the amendment?

That's right.

This is a response to the Bevin pardon the legislature has proposed.

It doesn't limit the power of the governor to issue pardons or commutations or reprieves.

It just limits his window around election time to do that.

So if it goes into effect, if it passes, it'll go into effect.

for, for 2027.

need to know before we let you go?

That's like the longest day of my life.

You remember the stories of abuses and Abu Ghraib, people being sleep deprived.

That's kind of what it's like for all of us.

So the polls open at 6 in the morning, but obviously we're up way before then.

We convene the State Board of Elections at 6 a.m., but...

We are pressing our county clerks and our poll workers to be on site more like 5 30 or even 5 a.m. We had a problem in Jefferson County in 2024 where this is an example where when you improve stuff, there's sometimes something that you missed.

The usage of early voting in 2024 in Jefferson County was so significant that, unfortunately, even though our poll workers showed up on time on Election Day in Jefferson County, it took hours and hours for the download from the e-poll books over the weekend, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, so that people couldn't double vote.

And how can we ensure that the voter rolls are accurate?

What are the rules around that? And can you deviate if you want to vote straight ticket and then deviate? Is that allowed? What are the rules around that?

So if you vote straight ticket and then you deviate and you vote for someone of the other party, even though you voted straight ticket, that will override.

So if you vote for, let's say, one Republican and two Democrats and you voted straight ticket Democrat, we'll still count the vote that you cast for the Republican.

It will override the vote for the Democrat in that race.

I want to remind people that most races that we voted are not partisan.

And so if you feel on the bubble at the top to vote straight ticket, that's great.

A lot of voters do that.

Can you just in broad terms, just explain what people need to know about that for those that haven't been following the legislature that got us to this point?

that lived in my area.

Now, if you go out further north in Michigan, because I live right under the border of Michigan, literally, you can, it's less than a mile from where I'm sitting right now, the border.

And I'm like, you know, this cannot be happening.

So I said, what is there to lose? So I go talk to this guy.

I ask him, are you Native American? He says, yeah.

And I tell him who I am.

My name is Mike.

You have to.

pretty normal and and uh... well we have a mayor's race here in lexington it it may be more competitive later but probably not as uh... competitive today not like the races you describe in pulaski county are you it running into any issues today mister secretary i mean normally you guys get calls complaining about somebody who's campaigning too close to the entrance of a polling place other than that anything anything abnormal

no actually it's been the quietest election day at because i've been in office really in this about 10, 11 times, and this has been the smoothest, quietest one that we've ever had.

We always get complaints.

There's always people who file complaints with us, and we've gone through those.

95% of them are, the poll worker said my party out loud.

Well, I mean, it's public record.

Sorry.

You'll learn how to maybe do some things differently because it maybe didn't work out during the primary so you can get it fixed before the fall general.

But I can see where the Massey race now, how's the turnout in the 4th District?

Well, I won't have turnout numbers until the polls close, unfortunately.

I'll have his anecdotes.

But I can tell you this.

We do have turnout numbers for the first three days of voting and for the absentees.

And it may surprise you, but in the 6th District and the 4th District, we actually don't really see a big pop in turnout.

The turnout's been the highest in counties that have very competitive local races like I was talking about.

And I thought, now, how do you all work this, or the county clerk's offices? Do the results of the three days of early voting come out first tonight?

How are you complying with this and navigating this as a Republican?

[lips smack] So I think there are opposite poles here.

One pole is never, ever cooperate with the administration, and that's not the right posture, I don't think, on the law.

The other is just give them everything that they ask for and not run your traps.

Uh, we're doing something more in the middle, which is that we have our own data privacy laws in Kentucky.

We have our own personal privacy laws in Kentucky, and any citizen of the United States can ask for our voter rolls, and many do.

And every campaign asks for them, the state parties ask for them, and we provide that information.

So it's a much more challenging environment, so we're always working hard to recruit new clerks, to train our folks, and I think that's probably the biggest challenge.