voting

FRANKFORT, KY — Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams says the commonwealth continues to see an uptick in voter registration, with the state’s number of registered voters increasing to over 3.5 million as of August 31.

Adams says there has been a rise of 19,626 registered voters, or 0.56%, in the past month.

“With the pandemic making voter registration drives difficult, my Office has stepped up to help register new voters before the October 5 deadline,” said Adams.

In an interview from mid September, Adams told WPSD that voter registration has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and, even though registration is on the rise, the number of new registered voters over this summer dropped 90% from last year.

Adams says his office has also stepped up to clean up the voter rolls. 34,967 voters have been removed since he took office in January. 2,724 voters who are felons, nonresidents, or deceased were removed in August, according to Adams.

“We are aggressively removing from our rolls voters who have moved away, passed away, or been put away,” Adams said.

In an effort to get people registered to vote before the Oct. 5 deadline, Adams visited West Kentucky earlier this week to review voting options and update people on the state’s general election plans.

During his speech to the Purchase District Development District, he predicted a 72% voter turnout in the upcoming election. If the November election is successful with voters, Adams says some of the temporary changes because of the pandemic could become permanent after the election.

The secretary’s office says Democratic registrants represent 47.5% of the electorate with 1,670,789 registered voters. Adams says Democratic registration decreased by 5,954 since July 31, which is a 0.36% drop. Republican registrants total 1,533,095, or 43.6%, of voters with an increase of 21,274 registered voters, a gain of 1.41%, since July 31.

Adam’s says almost 9% of voters are represented under other affiliations, which saw an increase of 4,306 registrants, or a 1.39% growth in the same amount of time.

Complete registration statistics are available on the State Board of Elections website, elect.ky.gov. Register to vote online at GoVoteKy.com, or contact your county clerk. You can also find everything you need to register to vote by visiting Local 6’s Vote Ready page.