Northern Kentucky voter registration data for January 2024 shows the region has more registered independent voters than in January last year.
Meanwhile, all three NKY counties reported fewer registered Democrats in January 2024 than the same month a year ago and all but one – Kenton County – reported fewer registered Republicans. There was also an overall decrease in registered voters in NKY in January 2024 compared to January 2023.
In terms of NKY independent voters, state board of elections voter registration statistics show the largest increase in independent affiliation was in Kenton County, where registered independents grew 5.89%, from 8307 registered independents in January 2023 to 8827 in January 2024.
Smaller, yet quantifiable, increases in independent voters were also reported for Boone and Campbell counties. In Boone County, the number of registered independents grew 1.6% (from 6251 in Jan. 2023 to 6353 in Jan. 2024). In Campbell County — the only NKY’ county with bipartisan representation in the state General Assembly — the increase was less than one percent (from 4965 in Jan. 2023 to 5007 in Jan. 2024).
Voter party affiliation matters going into the May 21, 2024, primary election because Kentucky is what is called a “closed primary” state. That means a voter must be registered as either a Democrat or Republican to vote in the state’s partisan primary races.
Registered independents, for example, will not be allowed to vote in the U.S. presidential primary election or congressional or state legislative races in May.
The deadline to change voter party affiliation has long passed. That deadline was Dec. 31, 2023. Kentuckians who have not yet registered to vote in the primary, however, can still do so until April 22.
Voter registration dip
Overall, the number of registered voters in NKY decreased in Jan. 2024 compared to Jan 2023, according to state voter registration data. That is despite a slight bump in registration of 0.02% in Boone County, 0.10% in Campbell County and 0.08% in Kenton County from Dec. 2023 to Jan. 2024.
The largest overall drop in registered voters in NKY in Jan. 2024 compared to the same month last year was in Campbell County, where there were 4.9% fewer voters last month compared to Jan. 2023, according to the Board of Elections statistics. The number of registered Democrats in Campbell County fell 6.6% last month compared to Jan. 2023, with the number of registered Republicans dropping 4%.
Boone County had the second-largest decrease (3.5%) in registered voters last month compared to Jan. 2024. Again, most of the decrease was in registered Democrats (5.22%) compared to a 3.53% decrease in registered Republicans for the same period.
Kenton County had a less than a quarter percent decrease (0.17%) in its voter rolls for Jan. 2024 compared to Jan. 2023 based on voter registration statistics. Democrats lost 1.46% of their registration base in Kenton County last month compared to Jan. 2023 while the number of registered Republicans only grew by a couple dozen individual voters countywide.
Part of NKY’s voter registration decrease in January 2024 compared to January 2023 could be attributed to voter list maintenance – removal of deceased persons, felons, people who have moved out of state and inactive voters from the state’s voting rolls by the board of elections. Last month, 6,156 voters were removed from the state’s rolls – most of them deceased individuals. However, because those statistics are not broken down by county, it is difficult to determine how the removal of those voters impacts NKY specifically.
Statewide, Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams said Monday that voter registration increased in Jan. 2024 as it has for the past ten months. That includes the modest increase in registered voters in NKY in January 2024 compared to December 2023.
Most Kentucky voters are registered Republican, with 46% or 1,611,760 of individual voters registered with the GOP statewide as of January 2024, according to the secretary of state’s office. Democrats comprised 44% of the state’s electorate, with 1,520,663 voters last month.
The remaining 10% of Kentucky voters as of Jan. 2024 were registered under other affiliations – an increase of 0.33% over Dec. 2023, Adams said.
“These numbers suggest that this November we could have the highest voter turnout in decades,” according to the secretary of state, who then segued into a plea for state lawmakers to leave voting measures like no-excuse in-person absentee voting in place. NKY Sen. John Schickel (R-Union) has filed a bill to eliminate that option.
“It is critical that the General Assembly leave early voting days and our election integrity measures intact,” Adams said Monday.