'Others' May Find it Easier to Vote in Coming Primary

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Thousands of "others," people who choose not to register as a Democrat or Republican, should have an easier time voting in the May primary next year for nonpartisan races such as judgeships.

Kentucky has a closed primary system, where only people registered in a given political party may vote in that party's primary.
But there are also nonpartisan elections, notably the hundreds of judgeships that will be decided in 2006 and many communities have nonpartisan races for their governing councils.

Independents have often had difficulty voting in primary elections in the past.

"What has frequently happened over the years, there hasn't been anything for an independent to vote on," said Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins.

But there have also been instances where poll workers turned away independents who might have been eligible to vote in a nonpartisan race because of their own misinformation, said Bill Lile, a co-director of the board of elections in Jefferson County.

Also, some old voting machines simply didn't have the option of allowing balloting only for nonpartisan races.

Of the roughly 2.7 million voters registered as of mid-November, 172,324 of them, or about 6.4 percent, chose not to be associated with either of the two major political parties and therefore were designated as "others" on state rolls. But in some counties, notably the northern tier of Campbell, Kenton and Boone, independents comprise more than 10 percent of registered voters.

New voting machines in place all across the state should remove any technical obstacles, officials said.

But people who are on the fence about their party identity are facing a deadline. Dec. 31 is the last day to change party registrations and still be eligible to vote in that party's primary come May 23, Secretary of State Trey Grayson reminded voters on Monday.

There could be hundreds of judicial elections next year because all but two seats on the Kentucky bench, from district court to the Supreme Court, are up for election this year. In addition, many communities have nonpartisan governing bodies, including Lexington's urban county council.

Jefferson County uses machine reader voting machines and Lile said there could be 30-50 different primary ballots in Jefferson County alone next year, including some that contain only the nonpartisan races.

In Fayette and other counties that use regular voting machines, they should also be set up to accept nonpartisan voters, Blevins said.

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