Many Kentucky counties are consolidating polling sites, raising concerns about access

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Collier, a Republican, is trying her hardest to balance convenient and accessible voting with a shoestring budget. With the $50,000 the local government allocates annually, she struggles to keep voting machines up-to-date and poll workers paid. So this election, they're trying to stretch that budget further by offering four centers where anyone in the county can vote, regardless of precinct.

"It was a tough decision [with] the County Board of Elections," she said. "There were doubts, and a lot of discussion, but it was kind of something that we had to do just money-wise. Elections are important, but I also think that it's important to spend that money on different projects, whether that's roads or whatever."

Even though she wasn't required to, during this year's primary Collier printed vinyl yard signs and put them in all the precincts people had voted at for decades.

She said she watched the primary voter turnout closely, and with it only dropping by 1 percentage point compared to the 2019 primary, she's hopeful this could be a good strategy for elections like this year's, without a presidential election, when turnout is typically a little lower.

"This fall ... we'll see if it stands the test of time," she said. "I'm pretty sure that we can make it work."

Collier isn't alone in consolidating polling locations. For this election, 64 of Kentucky's 120 counties have switched from a slew of neighborhood polling locations to using just a few centralized vote centers. Last year, 59 counties were exclusively using vote centers."...