Lexington voters will have six in-person polling sites to choose from when voting in the general election, but the city will be encouraging residents to vote by mail in possible.
Throughout the rest of the state, officials will be emphasizing in-person voting to take the pressure off of postal services and mail processors. But due to a lack of ideal candidates for polling locations in Lexington, Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins says the city only has the capacity to handle about 25 percent of residents casting ballots in person. So the messaging in Lexington will be reversed.
"We can handle the mail volume here. It's not going to kill us. What's harming us is our lack of location availability due to our unique circumstances here in town," he explained. "So we're really asking people to vote by mail."
But the city has identified six polling spots, including the Lexington Senior Center, Bluegrass Community and Technical College's Leestown campus, the Dunbar Center, and three branches of the public library: Beaumont, Northside, and Tates Creek.
"If you map these in your mind, you will see that there's more or less a five-point star pattern around the edge of the city almost at the compass points that would be appropriate, and there's one right in the middle of the city at the Dunbar Center," Blevins added.
The clerk said the locations will be open for early voting starting October 13th and on Election Day, which is November 3rd.
Drop boxes for absentee ballots will be located at the three participating library branches, the senior center, near the Fayette County Clerk's office downtown, and another location yet to be announced.
In-person voting locations:
- Tates Creek Branch Library, 3628 Walden Dr.
- Northside Branch Library, 1733 Russell Cave Road
- Beaumont Branch Library, 3080 Fieldstone Way
- Dunbar Center, 545 N. Upper St.
- Lexington Senior Center, 195 Life Lane (behind Southland Christian Church on Richmond Road
- And BCTC Leestown Campus, 164 Opportunity Way
