An average of 11% of people voted in the primary election in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties in 2024.
Eleven percent.
Even though races you’ll be voting for on May 19 won’t necessarily be as sexy as a presidential or gubernatorial race, they’ll have a lot more impact on your daily life.
Voters will get the chance to weigh in on U.S. Senate and Congressional races, but it’s the local city and county races that Shane Noem, a lobbyist and the chair of the Kenton County Republican Party, said will have the biggest immediate impact on your life.
First, make sure you’re aware of the hyper-local issues, because those are the ones most likely to affect your everyday lives, Noem said.
“Cities and school boards raise taxes higher and faster and lower them faster than any other body of government,” Noem said.
Healthcare and education are two of the biggest issues that are on Kentuckians’ minds right now, Noem said.
“A lot of our elections are going to be focused on who can right the ship in a big way,” Noem said. “And the issues that matter the most to Kentuckians right now are health and education.”
So if you are focused on how those two things directly affect your family or those around you, this is a great way to make your voice heard.
Another thing to keep in mind in Northern Kentucky is just how many elected bodies there are. In just LINK nky’s coverage area, there are three counties, 13 school districts and 36 cities and municipalities.
Because of that fragmentation, one key is making sure that the people we elect into office in May work well together, said Trey Grayson, an attorney and former Kentucky secretary of state.
When it comes to things like housing, transportation and workforce, Grayson said, decisions about who is leading the county could have the biggest impact locally.
“I think that regionalism is going to kind of be on the ballot,” Grayson said.
Things like housing or transportation can’t be solved within city limits, so Grayson’s recommendation for voters is to pay attention to whether candidates prioritize regionalism and working together — or not.
“Housing doesn’t stop at a city or a county line,” Grayson said.
Right now, Grayson said, NKY has elected officials who work together pretty well to solve regional problems. If that is something voters want to continue, they will need to be aware of the priorities of who they are voting for.
On the other hand, if you’re interested in keeping counties more separate, that’s something to keep in mind at the polls as well.
“Making sure we are communicating that to the candidates, and then choosing candidates who prioritize those things,” Grayson said.
Then there’s AI. Yes, how you vote next year will affect that, too.
With U.S. Senate and Congressional races happening this year, along with state legislative seats up for grabs, whoever is voted into office is going to be creating the policies that regulate AI in the years to come.
Because AI has been relatively ubiquitous thus far, Grayson said, there aren’t policies that currently exist. But they will need to be made in the coming years.
“Whoever wins these races, they’re going to be in the position to set some of these initial policies that have never existed before,” Grayson said.
Whose responsibility is it to get people to the polls?
Given the voter turnout by county in the 2024 primary (Campbell was 10.4%, Boone was 12.6% and Kenton was 9.7%, according to Kentucky’s State Board of Elections), what actually motivates people to go to the polls, and whose responsibility is it to get them there?
“Voters are typically motivated to turnout in higher numbers when things aren’t working,” Noem said. “In Kentucky, voters are quite happy with the Republican-led transformation of our state and region.”
So maybe people aren’t voting because they’re happy with how things are.
But could it also be because NKY residents aren’t aware of how important local races can be to voters’ everyday lives?
Maybe that’s the point, said University of Cincinnati professor of public and international affairs, Jeff Blevins.
“If you’re an incumbent, do you need voter turnout?” Blevins said.
Blevins has published two books about social media’s effect on the nation’s political landscape.
He said that as the country has become increasingly politicized, national politics have started to predominate everything. Combine that with social media, which allows politicians to directly reach their constituents without “receipts,” as Blevins said, and the need for local discourse on local TV and in local newspapers has been seen as largely unnecessary.
“Look at what’s happening nationally as well,” Blevins said. “There has been an ongoing discourse about how the elections are rigged and illegals are voting.”
So, Blevins said, it might make sense to create less awareness for people who are less likely to vote for you. All of that is happening in an increasingly polarized world in which there is a sense of preordainment as to the results of elections, he said.
To that end, people aren’t just fed vetted information about elections the way they were before social media became what it is. Because they get the information they want fed to them through algorithms, Blevins said there’s not as much of a recognized need to go seek the information out from sources directly.
But, Noem said, that’s an oversimplification of what’s happening in Northern Kentucky.
“It’s worth noting that NKY has inflated voter rolls due to the thriving transient nature of our region,” Noem said. “Due to proximity to Cincinnati and CVG more people moving in and moving out at any moment, it takes time for voter registration to catch up with where they are.”
That, he said, skews the registration data several points each election compared to other regions around the state.
“We are likely on par or greater than the state average if you adjust for that transience that Louisville and Lexington don’t experience,” Noem said.
