Politico: Primary voters in New York and Kentucky turn out despite pandemic

06.23.2020 / By ERIN DURKIN and ZACH MONTELLARO
Politico: Primary voters in New York and Kentucky turn out despite pandemic

Lines were short all day in Louisville, though, with reporters on site noting the process appeared to be running mostly smoothly. “I’m really happy people didn’t have that much trouble,” Richard Beliles, the chairman of the board of Common Cause Kentucky who was in Louisville observing the polls, said. “The only problem was cars [coming in].”

As candidates in New York and Kentucky duked it out during the last heated hours of their Congressional primaries, voters faced a battle of their own: casting their ballots amid a global pandemic.

The two states were the center of the action nationally as a slate of progressive candidates in New York sought to repeat the success of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in ousting longtime Democratic incumbents and two Democrats in Kentucky fought for the chance to take on one of the most powerful Republicans in the country: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

After months of uncertainty around how the primary process would work in the time of coronavirus, voters still showed up to the polls in droves while many more opted to send in their ballots for the first time.

And while the true test of the day’s success will be in the final tally, a series of snafus in both states didn’t inspire confidence. …

The worst fears of widespread voter disenfranchisement did not come to pass in Kentucky, though the state had its hitches.

Earlier in the week, some national Democrats registered concerns over voter suppression, because there were only about 200 polling places in the state, down from the usual 3,700. The cities of Louisville and Lexington each only had one physical, in-person polling place on Election Day.

Lines were short all day in Louisville, though, with reporters on site noting the process appeared to be running mostly smoothly. “I’m really happy people didn’t have that much trouble,” Richard Beliles, the chairman of the board of Common Cause Kentucky who was in Louisville observing the polls, said. “The only problem was cars [coming in].”

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