Fewer Voters at Polls in Lexington than Expected

He said almost 95,000 people voted in Lexington for the midterm election.
 
“The total turnout was 47%,” said Don Blevins, Fayette County Clerk.  “Typically we hit 49% in this particular cycle and I had hoped for 50% but we only came in at 47% this time.”
 
Blevins admits, typically midterm election voter turnout is lower than presidential elections but with all eyes on the Senate race he said the numbers are surprising.
 
“I had the sense that both parties were pushing hard to get turnout high for the Senate race so I’m sort of surprised that it wasn’t a little bit higher than average,” said Blevins.
 
Mitch McConnell overwhelmingly beat his challenger, Alison Lundergan Grimes, by 15 points.
 
McConnell pulled ahead in polls just before Election Day which UK Political Science professor Stephen Voss said could be to blame for the lower turnout.
 
“When a race is more competitive, voters are more likely to vote,” said professor Stephen Voss.  “When it looks less competitive they’re more likely to stay home and so there may have been a little bit of recognition that the big marquee race was sort of settling out and people knew how it would go.”
 
The Attorney General’s Office said there were 226 calls to the fraud hotline during Tuesday’s election.
 
Nearly 100 of those were for procedural questions.