Voters cast their ballots on Election Day. Photo by Abigail Shoyat | LINK nky contributor

With early voting beginning Thursday and Election Day happening next week, Kentucky’s Sec. of State Michael Adams has a message for Kentucky voters: “Time’s ticking.”

“The likelihood is you know who you’re going to vote for,” Adams said. “Most people do, so don’t dally.”

Adams has been taking to both conventional media and social media over the past few days, encouraging people to vote early to avoid lines on Election Day.

Voter turnouts tend to be higher during presidential elections, which was a bit of sour point for Adams as people often end up voting against a candidate, instead of for a candidate.

“When people are happy, turnout goes down,” Adams said. “When people are ticked off, turnout goes up, and a lot of people are ticked off. Some are ticked off at one candidate, and some are ticked off at the other candidate.”

Turnout rates from the Kentucky Board of Elections bear out the idea that turnout tends to jump up during presidential races, even if the numbers don’t necessarily speak to voters’ states of mind.

The high number of absentee ballots that have already been returned to the state suggests a high turnout this year.

"As of last night, we had received back 62.5% of absentee ballots," Adams told LINK nky on Tuesday.

Why is this important?

"It does tell you just a sense of what you can expect in the in-person voting because if there's strong in-person, excused absentee [voting], that suggests there's also going to be strong Election Day and strong early voting as well," Adams said.

In short, high absentee turnout signals high turnout overall.

It's not just the presidential race, however. There are numerous local races in Kentucky plus two constitutional amendments. As such, it's good to know how you're going to vote before you enter the ballot box if you're voting on Election Day, Adams said.

"We had lines in 2022 in some of our counties, and people weren't familiar with the constitutional amendments," Adams said. "They'd never seen them; they certainly never read them, and they stood there in the voting booth for 20 or 30 minutes trying to read the legalese."

Kenton County polling places were hit especially hard with long lines in 2022 for a variety of reasons. Some people stood in line for over an hour to cast their ballots. Several local leaders spoke out at the time about the long lines with many expressing frustration at the reduced number of polling sites in the county. That year's lengthy ballot was likely also a contributing factor.

Luckily, Adams said, state laws allow people to bring notes and marked up sample ballots into the voting booth. It's important to know, however, that poll workers can't help you. They can't even explain what the language on a ballot means, so it's important to be informed beforehand.

"This is an open book test," Adams said. "You can prepare before you come. You can bring your notes. You can bring a sample ballot that you marked. You can vote in an informed way. Don't just show up unprepared."

Adams' office is expecting about 2.5 million people to vote in the election.

"If we have a situation where you've got, say, 5% voting absentee, and we'll say 20% vote early--which is more than in 2023--and then 75% vote Election Day, 75% of two and a half million people is a lot of dang people," Adams said.

In short, vote early if you can. Early in-person voting begins Thursday, Oct. 31. You don't need to be eligible for an absentee ballot to cast an early in-person vote.

Check out the links below to see when and where in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties you can cast an early vote. You can also download sample ballots so you can be better prepared. Enter your information at vrsws.sos.ky.gov/VIC/ to find your precinct.

Visit LINK nky's voter guide for all the info on local and state wide races.