Voting Machines

Boyle County Board of Elections will verify the voting machines at 9:30 a.m. Thursday in the basement of the courthouse. People may come observe the procedure.

LANCASTER - With the upcoming primary elections, Garrard County citizens now can rest assured their votes will be safe and counted. Secretary of State Trey Grayson was on hand Tuesday at the Garrard County Courthouse to showcase the new eScan voting machines. In the new system designed to cancel out computer error, a voter fills out a paper ballot, which is then scanned into a computer to ensure double accuracy. Garrard County was one of only seven counties statewide to receive grants to purchase the machines.

LIBERTY - Casey County voters will see new voting machines at the polls in the next election. Fiscal Court awarded a $96,755 contract Monday to Harp Enterprises in Lexington for 16 new voting machines for each of the 15 precincts and one for absentee ballots. The contract also calls for updating current voting machines. The purchase was made with a federal grant the court received. Judge-Executive Ronald Wright said the machines will be received by Jan. 1. County Clerk Eva Miller said the new machines are handicapped accessible so people will not need help and will have more privacy when voting.

The Jessamine County Fiscal Court approved a the letting of bids for new voting machines for the county as required by a recent law change. The bulk of the cost of the new machines will be covered by a grant which County Clerk Eva McDaniel acquired last year, with the county having to kick in $4,500 for one additional machine. McDaniel said the board of elections voted to purchase the machines, which are similar to the ones currently used to count absentee ballots, now because the cost of each machine will go up $900 in January.

Mackville sets tractor, truck pull MACKVILLE - A tractor and truck pull will be 5 p.m. April 28 at Mackville Community Center. Admission is $5; free for ages 10 and younger. Classes are available for antique and open tractors plus small trucks, pure stock, small and big block, and diesel. Proceeds got to the community center. Sponsors are Mackville Community Center and Mackville Lions Club. Call Joey Stumph at (859) 262-0020; Kenny Graves at (859) 336-9241; or Wesley Holderman at (859)

Attorney General Greg Stumbo announced today that his Election Fraud Hotline received a total of 38 calls with 41 issues on election day from voters between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Eight calls regarded voting machines; six calls regarded election officials; five callers had legal or procedural questions; three related to voter assistance; two calls each pertained to electioneering and allegations of disrupting polls. The remaining fifteen complaints were general in nature. There were an additional 18 calls in the days leading up to the election.

Democrat David Sparrow will request both a recanvass and recount of votes cast in the 54th House District race, in which unofficial results show Sparrow losing to incumbent Mike Harmon by a slim margin. Sparrow said this morning that he will file his request for a recanvass with the secretary of state Tuesday and that the process would be completed next Thursday. Sparrow said he will file his request for a recount before the Nov. 18 deadline. The closeness of the race and confusion in getting vote totals in Boyle County led to Sparrow's decision to challenge the results.

Poll workers to be trained Oct. 23 Training for election poll workers will be held Thursday Oct. 23 at 6 p.m. at the Clark County Extension Office, 1400 Fortune Drive. Voting machines inspections Oct. 31 The Clark County Board of Elections will inspect voting machines Friday, Oct. 31 at 8:30 a.m. Absentee voting deadline Nov. 1 Voters who find it necessary to be out of the country on election day, Nov. 4, may vote absentee at the County Clerk's Office during normal working hours or Saturday morning Oct. 25 and Nov. 1, from 9 a.m. to noon.

Dear Editor: Nearly all the Republican leadership are either facing indictment or investigation for crimes that include lying to Congress, the UN and the American people to take us into war, outing an undercover CIA agent (working on WMD) as payback, insider trading, criminal conspiracy, money laundering, campaign finance fraud, violations of state election laws and others too numerous to mention. Throw in the double whammy of the hurricane and the FEMA debacle, allegations of rendition, secret torture camps, assassinations, war profiteering (KBR and Halliburton posted new record highs)

Dear Editor, What a huge step in polling location consolidation for Boyle County. No fine tuning of the existing system. Wholesale change for us. Who needs lots of citizen input? The Republican and Democratic parties don't know anything about elections or voters. What I hope Denise Curtsinger and the Board of Elections get to say after the election: 1. It was a record turnout. 2. We saved the taxpayers some money. 3. Voting was faster and easier. 4. Any problems were resolved quickly.

Clark County voters who can’t get out to vote on primary election day May 17 will be able to do so by absentee ballot beginning Monday at the courthouse. Absentee voting can also be done by mail. To vote by mail, individuals must call the Clark County Clerk’s Office’s election department at 745-0280, ext. 3, to get an application and a ballot mailed to them. The ballot can then be mailed back or dropped off to the Clerk’s Office. The deadline for mail-in ballots is May 10. Votes can be cast at the courthouse on Mondays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Tuesdays through Fridays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Donna Sebastian, deputy clerk for elections, said the process is the same as in previous years and very simple.

By the time you read this, County Clerk Sonny Spoonamore may have certified the results of Tuesday’s election, but a malfunctioning voting machine in the McKinney-1 precinct kept the final results from Lincoln County from being published on Election Night. The machine, maintained by Kentuckiana Election Services (KES), suffered an internal malfunction Tuesday night after the polls closed and until KES fixes it, results of the race remain unofficial. There were two machines in the precinct, so the Clerk’s office has gotten some of the votes cast there; there are not enough uncounted votes to effect any of the local election results.

STANFORD — Stanford got bigger, Curt Folger retained his sheriff’s badge and Republicans picked up two seats on fiscal court, but snafus with voting machines meant Lincoln Countians had to wait well into the evening to learn the outcome of Tuesday’s elections. In fact, the votes cast at McKinney Precinct No. 1 are still stuck in the machine and won’t be retrieved until Thursday, Lincoln County Clerk Sonny Spoonamore said. It doesn’t appear there are enough votes at stake in that precinct to change the results of any race, Spoonamore said.

HARRODSBURG ? State Rep. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, received the most votes Tuesday night in Mercer County in a special election that determined who would fill the vacant state Senate seat of Dan Kelly. Higdon's win in Mercer County and three other counties in the special election were enough to make him victorious in the race. The 14th district includes Marion, Mercer, Nelson, Taylor and Washington counties. Higdon is a current state representative, representing the 24th district which consists of Casey and Marion counties and a portion of Pulaski County.

HARRODSBURG ? On Monday, Gov. Steve Beshear announced a special election for Marion, Mercer, Nelson, Taylor and Washington counties after appointing Republican state Sen. Dan Kelly to a judgeship in the 11th judicial circuit. The special election will be on Tuesday, Dec. 8. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. When there is a special election, Democratic and Republican leaders nominate a person from their party to run. Petitions and certificates to run may be filed 28 days before the election.

HARRODSBURG ? The Mercer County Fiscal Court is taking steps to further ensure that every person's vote counts. At its meeting Tuesday the court approved the purchase of 19 new eScan voting machines. Seventeen of the 19 machines are being funded by the Help America Vote Act, and the other two will be paid for by the county. The two machines the county will be responsible for cost about $9,000. A machine will be placed in each of the 17 precincts, one will be kept in the courthouse for absentee voting and one will be used as a spare in case something goes wrong with one of the machines, County Clerk Chris Horn said.

The Jessamine County Fiscal Court approved a the letting of bids for new voting machines for the county as required by a recent law change. The bulk of the cost of the new machines will be covered by a grant which County Clerk Eva McDaniel acquired last year, with the county having to kick in $4,500 for one additional machine. McDaniel said the board of elections voted to purchase the machines, which are similar to the ones currently used to count absentee ballots, now because the cost of each machine will go up $900 in January.

If absentee and early voting are indicators, Lincoln countians will turn out in record numbers for Tuesday's general election. As of 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, 187 absentee ballots had been mailed to prospective voters, and 216 persons who said they would be out of the county on election day had voted early, said County Clerk Sonny Spoonamore. Spoonamore and Election Coordinator Cathy Grubbs said those numbers are about double what they normally expect, and they are preparing for a correspondingly high voter turnout Tuesday.

Poll workers to be trained Oct. 23 Training for election poll workers will be held Thursday Oct. 23 at 6 p.m. at the Clark County Extension Office, 1400 Fortune Drive. Voting machines inspections Oct. 31 The Clark County Board of Elections will inspect voting machines Friday, Oct. 31 at 8:30 a.m. Absentee voting deadline Nov. 1 Voters who find it necessary to be out of the country on election day, Nov. 4, may vote absentee at the County Clerk's Office during normal working hours or Saturday morning Oct. 25 and Nov. 1, from 9 a.m. to noon.

LANCASTER - Nearly half of Lancaster's registered voters stormed the polls Tuesday, legalizing alcohol sales in the city limits by a margin of 106 votes. A total of 1,206 votes were cast, representing 49.9 percent of eligible registered voters within the city, said Garrard County Clerk Stacy May. Totals showed 656 voted "yes" and 550 voted "no. " May said the vote brought out people who hadn't voted in years, and the turnout percentage was notably higher than usual, dwarfing the turnout of recent primary and general elections.