WHY YOUR VOTE MATTERS IN KY
At some point, we all have encountered that person who says, “My vote doesn’t matter because Kentucky isn’t a battleground state.”
If they are super nerdy, this person will go into a tirade against the electoral college and gerrymandering. It is hard not to get discouraged because there is some truth in this argument when it comes to our presidential elections. But this perspective blatantly ignores the massive importance of down ballot races.
While your vote may not tip the scale for Harris in November, it will decide whether Kentucky maintains its Republican supermajority in its Statehouse and public school funding. Voters in Central Kentucky will vote on a Supreme Court race and in Western Kentucky, there is a Court of Appeals race. Arguably, what happens in the Statehouse, in the courts, and to the Kentucky Constitution has a bigger impact on your day-to-day life than who becomes president.
Take Amendment 2, a ballot question on whether to change the Constitution of Kentucky in a way that ensures that charter school funding will withstand any future legal challenges. That’s a fancy way of saying that this amendment gives GOP lawmakers in Frankfort carte blanche to reallocate public tax dollars from public schools to private schools. If you live in a rural area where the public school is the biggest employer and you do not have charter schools, the resulting budget cuts could mean local job losses and poorer educational outcomes for your community.
Or we can look at how the Republican supermajority in Frankfort chose to ignore finding solutions to the real needs of Kentuckians’ in favor of stoking culture war issues or filing three separate resolutions in support of the Texas governor to secure Texas’ southern border.
Many of these down ballot races are close, and your vote could be the difference between whether your schools are funded or whether your state representative fixes that pothole riddled road down the street instead of filing more resolutions about out-of-state issues.
Below is information on how and where to vote in the 2024 elections:
Mail-in Absentee
Saturday, September 21, 2024 - Tuesday, October 22, 2024 – Online absentee request portal open
Tuesday, November 5, 2024, 6:00PM local time – Date by which mail-in absentee ballot must be received to County Clerk
In-Person, Excused Absentee Voting
October 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, & 30, 2024 (ONLY) ----In-person, excused absentee voting conducted.
In-Person, No Excuse Absentee Voting
October 31, November 1, & 2, 2024--- In-person, no-excuse absentee voting conducted.
In-Person Election Day Voting
November 5, 2024, 6:00AM – 6:00PM, local time – In-person voting conducted.
Polling Locations by county can be accessed at iwillvote.com