Low Voter Turnout from Early Voting Weekend

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Election Day is less than 24 hours away, and after this weekend’s early voting, the voter turnout is incredibly low.

“We, so far, have had, for early voting and in-office early/excused in-office voting… we have had probably like four percent turnout so it’s very… and that is combined,” Warren County Clerk Lynnette Watts says.

One of the main reasons for this low percentage may have to do with same day voter registration.

“States that traditionally have the highest levels of voter turnout on average in the United States are places like Minnesota or Wisconsin, they allow you to register to vote the same day. Most other states, including Kentucky, don’t allow that… they allow you to or make you register some period of time in advance, and that can depress voter turnout,” WKU Political Science Professor Jeff Budziak says.

Some voters may be driven away by the thought of their vote not mattering, but that’s far from the case.

“The reality is, in a state like Kentucky, your vote is pretty small compared to the rest of the country when you’re voting in a presidential election, but in these low information elections where we don’t have a lot of people going out to vote, your vote means more in a very literal sense,” Budziak says.

If you’re heading to the polls tomorrow, make sure to check out where the voting locations are in the county.

“You can find the locations at warren.countyclerk.us. We have a couple of new locations in the downtown… First Baptist, which is downtown. We also have Eastwood Baptist Church, which is kind of out in that Briarwood area,” Watts says.