My elderly Mom and I committed election fraud Friday. I sent in our absentee ballots by mail instead of voting in person with everyone in the city of Louisvlle at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center on June 23rd. Well, a certain orange baboon in the White House claims that I am committing election fraud with voting by mail. This despite the fact that Kentucky allows for the first time everyone to request a ballot because of COVID-19.
Kentucky is one of those states where you have to have an excuse to vote by absentee ballot.
OK. So it’s Kentucky. It should be no big deal for a primary in Kentucky. Land of Trump. Several co called Democrats have been crossing over and voting for Republicans for years now, so why bother with a Democratic primary? Usually primaries in Kentucky are low turnout events, except in very contested presidential primaries. And with Democrats now rallying around Biden and a viral pandemic going on, this should be a very low turnout primary.
Or will it?
The window is closing on requesting an application for an absentee ballot, but as of Friday morning, here is what is happening in Jefferson County:
In order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office is encouraging people to vote by mail this year.
Many people already have – of the 616,525 registered voters in Jefferson County, 282,551 have requested a ballot, as of 6 a.m. Friday morning.
For those who don’t know, the largest city in Kentucky, Louisville, resides in Jefferson County. If — and it is still an if — all those folks return their ballots, it will translate into a primary voter turnout of approximately 45%. The number of voters who turned out in 2016 in Jefferson County was 24.3%.
Is something going on with voters in Louisville?
Only three or four things are listed on the Democratic Primary ballot this year: president, U.S. Senate, state representative — and for some — state senator. Democratic Congressman John Yarmuth has an uncontested primary, so he wasn’t listed on the ballot. As I said earlier, Biden has this in the bag, so voting for Biden can’t be what is driving the requests for absentee ballots, And no offense to my state representative Tom Burch, but he has been getting reelected for years now.
Could there be some movement in the race for the U.S. Senate?
Because voter turnout in Democratic primaries is abysmal, the person who is able to afford TV and radio campaign ads usually wins. And the smart money has been betting on Amy McGrath. She has had several ads up for months now, and even Moscow Mitch has been spending money to fight against her as if she already has won the primary.
But now Charles Booker and Mike Broihier — both progressives - have ads up attacking McGrath as not a real Democrat. Some on Daily Kos may not like it, but both Booker and Broihier have rightly pointed out her early gaffes. And I don’t know, but with all the protests about the police killing Breonna Taylor, the local media is hinting that Democrats in Louisville are possibly undergoing a political shift to the left.
But it is all just hints and suggestions. I am a progressive, and I have been proven wrong on predicting how progressives will do in any election. There are too many times where I bought into “Look what we are going to do!!!” only to wake up in a ditch with a “WTF?” on my face come election night.
Yeah, I’m thinking about the Elizabeth Warren campaign. God know how many dollars I sent or diaries I wrote promoting Elizabeth Warren. I still can see all those damn texts messages from her campaign…
Anyway, the point is that these are unusual times to say the least. And something might be afoot in Louisville. But I could be wrong.
It still felt good to commit election fraud though.
NOTE: As of today, the Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams said the following:
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican like Adams, mailed absentee ballot request forms to all active voters weeks in advance. More than 800,000 ballots were cast that way before Tuesday’s primary. Kentucky is close to that number now.
“We’ve already got 700,000 people that have either voted early or returned their absentee ballot, or are having their absentee ballot processed,” Adams said. Through Wednesday, “our turnout has been huge.”
That’s approximately a voter turn out of 20% for the entire state, so far (total registered voters in KY is 3.46 million). Of the total turnout, Lousville makes up 40%. In 2016, approximately 20% of Kentucky voters turned out for the primary. Will it go up? There are only two more days before the deadline for requesting an absentee ballot ends.