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Governor Beshear casts ballot on first day of Kentucky's early voting

Governor Andy Beshear and First Lady Britainy Beshear (accompanied by first dog Winnie) receive their ballots.
Clay Wallace
Governor Andy Beshear and First Lady Britainy Beshear (accompanied by first dog Winnie) receive their ballots.

Early in-person, no excuse absentee voting in Kentucky is Thursday, October 31, Friday, November 1, and Saturday, November 2.

After voting, Beshear praised the state's current expanded early voting period, and expressed his support for extending future elections' early voting to last all week. He said widening the window of early and absentee voting options helps to get more people to the polls who might not be able to make it otherwise.

"What we see is it doesn't trend right or left - it's just helpful for our Kentucky citizens. We have seen early and excused early voting up more than previous years, which means there's a lot of people who are either busy or doing other things," said Beshear. "Our transportation workers in North Carolina who are helping out after hurricane Helene had to vote earlier through that process."

Governor Beshear voted at the Yes Arts building, where the line at the polling location stretched outside and around the building.
Clay Wallace
Governor Beshear voted at the Yes Arts building, where the line stretched outside along the sidewalk.

Dozens of Frankfort residents voted alongside the governor in the gallery of Yes Arts, a community organization providing arts-based prevention and recovery programs. Elle Travis, executive director of Yes Arts, says the organization’s aim is to disrupt cycles of addiction through three “buckets” of programming - prevention work with youth, work with people in recovery, and outreach to the community; she sees serving as a polling location as an extension of the latter.

"I like that there's all the early voting days and Election Day because I've seen more children who get to come with their grownups because it's later on multiple nights," said Travis. "I love taking my kids to vote."

In Lexington, you can early vote at any of the city’s public libraries today, tomorrow, or Saturday between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm. Bring a drivers license - or another qualified ID.

If you’re not able to cast an early vote, you can plan to vote Tuesday, November 5th on Election Day.