Today is Election Day 2016 and the polls will be open from 6:00am-6:00pm.
When it comes to names on the ballot: In Barren and Metcalfe counties voters will have six candidates who will appear on the ballot for District Judge: Temple Dickinson, Karen Davis, Kathryn Thomas, Gabe Pendleton, James Howard and Brian Pack. Howard withdrew from the race a little over a month ago, however his name will still appear on the ballot.
When it comes to state representative for the 23rd District, Barren County Republicans will have two choices, Freddie Joe Wilkerson and Steve Riley. Barren County Democrats will chose between Danny Basil and Joe Trigg.
Hart County voters will have a democratic primary run-off for their state senate seat between Ricky Alvey and Leslie Stith.
When it comes to sending representatives to Washington DC, Barren, Edmonson, Metcalfe, Hart and Allen Counties will all be seeing primary races on their ballots. When it comes to Republicans in those counties, Incumbent Rand Paul has two challengers: James Gould and Stephen Slaughter. On the democratic side, there are seven names that will appear on the ballot. Jim Gray and Sellus Wilder have both been climbing in the polls, along with Ron Leach and lesser known Rory Houlihan, Jeff Kender, Tom Recktenwald and Grant Short.
In the race for US Congress, Metcalfe, Monroe and Allen County voters on the Republican side can chose between Monroe County native James Comer, Jason Batts, Miles Caughey Jr. and Mike Pape. On the Democrat side, voters will see candidates Tom Osborne and Samuel Gaskins.
Democrats statewide will be able to cast their vote for either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. As it stands now, Clinton leads Sanders 1716 delegates versus 1433. Kentucky has a total of 60 delegates up for grabs today, 55 regular and 5 super delegates. A total of 2382 is needed to win the democratic nomination for president.
To see a sample ballot, or to find out where you vote, you can go online to www.sos.ky.gov or search Kentucky Secretary of State.
When it comes to voter turnout, Kentucky Secretary of State Allison Lundergan Grimes predicts that of the 3.2 million registered voters in the state, only about 20% will turn out for today’s May Primary Election.
Be sure to tune in this evening as once again, WCLU will be live broadcasting election results as they come in. You can check us out on Lite 102.3fm, WCLU 1490am, online at wcluradio.com and on EPB Channel 6.