RICHMOND, Ky. (LEX 18) — Voters in Madison County had a full ballot, with a county cycle coinciding with the race for a seat in the United States Senate. This range of offices on the ballot led to a higher turnout for this year’s primary.
“This is where it's an open seat,” Madison County Clerk Kenny Barger said of the race for the U.S. Senate seat. “It feels like there's more competition, so people got to get a little more excited to vote.”
In local races, the rapid growth and leadership of Madison County is also on the mind of voters, voting for judge executive and mayor in the City of Richmond.
“The accelerated growth of Richmond as a whole and all the development that sometimes seems unchecked,” one voter said.
“These days it seems that there's not always transparency in the meetings and such, so this is a good way we can vote for someone who will work for those goals,” said another voter, Andy Colley.
According to Barger, voter registration was actually down, but voter turnout is up.
“The same cycle four years ago we had a total of 11,500,” he said during an interview around one in the afternoon. “We've already surpassed that number.”
The full ballot draw brought in a number of new and longtime primary voters.
“I've never missed an election since 1972,” Colley said.
“If you don't do the primary, you have to vote for whoever we've already pre-chosen for you,” Cordie Middleton sai
So, have the voters noticed an increase in traffic during the primary?
“Not really, about the same,” Middleton said. “Sometimes I've seen it less.”
“A little more buzz because of the situation in Washington and with the war and tariffs and all of those types of things,” said Colley.
According to Barger, early voting was up this year as well. He said total turnout could be in range of presidential primary voting.
“We're going to be up in the 15 to16,000 range easy,” said Barger. “It'd be 20% to 15,000 and we may be over that, which is presidential range for a primary.”
