A judge in Louisville ruled that polls will close at the normal 6 p.m. time despite an effort from Kentucky Democrats to keep them for an additional two hours, according to a spokesperson with the Jefferson County Clerk’s office.
Kentucky Democrats filed a motion late Tuesday afternoon, joined by the ACLU of Kentucky, requesting polling locations in Jefferson County extend their voting due to delays Tuesday morning.
The clerk’s office assured Louisville voters that everyone in line by 6 p.m. will be allowed to vote.
The Republican Party of Kentucky intervened in the case, arguing against extending polling hours.
“Only the General Assembly may extend (polling hours) and any votes cast after 6 p.m. are illegal. Therefore, Your Honor, it's very clear,” said Republican Party lawyer Tanner Watkins.
In a statement, Kentucky Democratic Party Executive Director Morgan Eaves said she was “extremely disappointed” by the ruling, saying it “deprived Kentuckians of the fundamental right to vote.”
“This absurd claim is an extension of their relentless obsession to remove checks and balances within our government,” Eaves said in the statement. “It not only effectively nullifies Kentucky’s judicial branch, it also disenfranchises Kentucky voters of all political affiliations.”
The Secretary of State’s Office blamed the morning’s delays on machines that poll workers use to check in voters when they arrive, saying they were updating and running slowly.
The ACLU-KY and Democrats argued at a 4 p.m. hearing that the polls’ hours needed to be extended in order to ensure people deterred by lengthy, systemwide delays Tuesday morning have another opportunity.
“The dysfunctional election machinery made it too difficult for Jefferson County voters who planned on polling locations being open from 6 a.m. throughout the morning up until the evening at 6 p.m.,” said Kentucky Democratic Party attorney Rick Adams. “They made voting plans around busy work and school schedules to vote at 6 a.m. before work and in the early hours of the morning, and they were deprived of that right.”
ACLU-KY Legal Director Corey Shapiro said courts have the duty to ensure voting rights are upheld, saying the Kentucky statute establishing voting hours was violated when the technical errors substantially delayed voting.
State and county election officials say high voter turnout compounded the delays. As Election Day pressed on, election officials were able to resolve many of the technological issues, though reports of long wait times persisted.
The party also filed two written testimonials, one from Rosalind Welch, a clerk at Hartstern Elementary and the vice-chair of the Louisville Democratic Party. She said that when the polls opened at 6 a.m., the system that checks voter registrations began to fail.
“Effectively, our ability to process voters stopped with every time the e-poll books crashed and became unusable for a certain period of time. They crashed dozens, if not hundreds, of times,” Welch’s testimony read.
Welch said the longest wait time her location experienced was roughly 2 hours and 30 minutes because of the number of technical difficulties. Louisville Democratic Party Chair Logan Gatti also offered testimony, saying he personally received “hundreds of reports” across Jefferson County from people unable to cast their ballot.
In response to Greenberg, Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw’s office told WDRB News that they have “no intention of keeping polls open later than 6.”
“(We) would appreciate if the mayor would refrain from telling us how to do our jobs,” the statement read.
The Louisville Urban League also released a statement expressing disappointment in the way officials handled this situation.
“These delays have impacted Kentuckians' ability to vote, and we have documented two individuals who contacted us this morning who could not vote due to the delays,” the emailed statement read. “These delays should have been circumvented by better preparation from the Jefferson County Clerk's Office.”
The U.S. Department of Justice is monitoring polling places in several jurisdictions across the country this Election Day to monitor for compliance with federal voting laws. Jefferson and Kenton counties are the two locations for Kentucky.
This story had been updated
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
