Fayette Co. clerk talks about how Election Day went

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — We’re starting what will likely be a week long wait for election results after Tuesday’s unprecedented election. (To watch the vote-counting in Fayette County, click here)

County clerk’s offices will be spending the next few days calculating all in-person votes and absentee ballots. Ballots they’ll still be receiving, through mail, until the end of the week.

We talked with Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins about how he thinks Election Day went.

It was an unusual primary with an unusual turnout – the highest in 20 years for Fayette County.

“Just shy of a 40% turnout,” says County Clerk Don Blevins.

Blevins says of the 92,000 requested absentee ballots his office has received around 85,000 back with more on the way.

We were there for most of the day at Fayette County’s only polling location, Kroger Field, where almost 3,900 people voted in-person.

There were long lines and rain. Even so, Blevins calls the day a win.

“It wasn’t perfect but it’s what we needed to do,” says Blevins.

He says long wait times came from hundreds of voters who had some sort of problem, like they’d already voted absentee or didn’t realize as independents they couldn’t vote in this partisan primary.

“There were very, very few precincts this time with non-partisan races,” says the county clerk.

When polls closed at 6, Blevins says a couple people were turned away who got in line too late and the last voter left around 8.

A lot of people around the state are already talking about repeating this style of election in November.

“Our first priority is to protect the public health. We have to start there, and work downward in conducting an election. The same answer will apply in November,” says Blevins.

So it’ll depend on COVID, but Blevins says it’s obvious people like voting by mail.

“I think it’s the safest, most effective, fraud-free way. There’s no evidence of fraud,” says Blevins.

He says under all this year’s extraordinary circumstances, he’d consider the primary a huge success.

“Lexington, we crushed this,” says Blevins.

He says there were just six weeks to plan the primary and the convention center was under construction but next time he’d put voting there instead of Kroger Field for more space protected from the elements.

He also says he’d expand the number of drop-off locations for absentee ballots because it was lot for the post office to handle.