By Duffey Oakley, staff writer.
Election season is upon us again. Although this is a midterm year with less media hype than a presidential election year, there are many important statewide and local candidates and referendum questions on the ballot.
In Kentucky, the top of the ballot features the U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Sen. Rand Paul and Democratic nominee Charles Booker, a former state representative who finished second in the 2020 Senate primary.
Each congressional district across the country will also be holding midterm elections for the House of Representatives. Danville–now in Kentucky’s First Congressional District after redistricting–has incumbent Republican Rep. James Comer running for reelection against Democratic nominee Jimmy Ausbrooks, a mental health counselor and the first openly gay candidate to advance to a general election for U.S. House in Kentucky history.
Many state legislatures are also holding midterm elections, including Kentucky, where the even-numbered State Senate districts and all 100 State House districts are up for election. In State Senate District 12, which includes Boyle County, Republican Amanda Mays Blesdoe, a member of Lexington’s city council, and Democrat Bill O’Brien are competing for an open seat following incumbent Republican Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr’s decision not to run for reelection. In House District 54 (Boyle and Casey Counties), incumbent Republican Rep. Daniel Elliott is running for reelection against Democrat Elaine Wilson-Reddy, founder of educational nonprofit The Gladys Project.
In addition, a long list of county, local, and judicial races are being held across the country. This list is headed by Danville through the Boyle County Judge/Executive race between Republican incumbent Howard Hunt and Democrat Trille Bottom, who is currently a County Clerk. Danville will also make history by electing its first Black mayor: in this nonpartisan race, voters will choose either J.H. Atkins, current Danville City Commissioner and former Assistant Vice President and Associate Professor of Education at Centre College, or James Hunn, Reentry and Programs Director at the Boyle County Detention Center and Director of the Circle of Hope Jobs Initiative. Also on the ballot are the magistrates of the Fiscal Court (members of the county government; Centre is in district 6, where Democratic incumbent John Caywood is running against Republican Steve Sleeper) and the nonpartisan members of the Danville Board of Commissioners.
Arguably two of the most important items on the Kentucky ballot this year are at the very end: Constitutional Amendments 1 and 2. The first would give the state legislature the power to set its own session date (rather than have fixed end dates as they do now), the ability to set a later end date with a 3/5 majority vote, and the opportunity for the leaders of the House and Senate to call a special session for up to twelve days. The second ballot measure would amend the state constitution to explicitly deny a right to abortion. Abortion is currently illegal in Kentucky at all stages of pregnancy after a trigger law went into effect when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade this summer. A lawsuit against the trigger law is currently being heard in State court but would become moot if Amendment 2 is passed. If it is rejected, that could also influence the court’s decision on whether abortion rights are currently protected in the state constitution. A similar constitutional amendment in Kansas was defeated by a twenty-point margin this August, though others have been approved in the past by voters in Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Meanwhile, California, Michigan, and Vermont will be voting this November on whether to explicitly protect the right to abortion in their state constitutions (and would become the first in the nation to do so).
If you are registered to vote at your Centre address, you may cast your ballot in-person during early voting on November 3, 4, and 5 from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm at the Inter County Energy Coop Building, 1009 Hustonville Rd, Danville, KY 40422, or on Election Day, November 8, from 6:00 am until 6:00 pm at any of the following locations: Inter County Energy Coop Building; Boyle County Fire Dept., Station 1, 1500 Lebanon Rd, Danville, KY, 40422; or First Christian Church, 555 E Lexington Rd, Danville, KY 40422.
If you are registered elsewhere in Kentucky, you can vote in-person on Election Day, in-person on an early absentee voting day (see the State Board of Elections or your county clerk’s website for details and locations), or by mail if you requested an absentee ballot. If you are registered to vote in another state, you may be able to vote either in-person or absentee; please review your state’s and county’s guidelines.
To view which candidates are on the ballot in any precinct in Kentucky, as well as to compare candidate answers to survey questions, you can use Kentuckians for the Commonwealth’s 2022 voter guide on their website. For all those nonpartisan judicial candidates you likely know very little about, the ACLU-KY has created a voter guide reporting judicial candidates’ answers to their survey questions on their website (mostly for candidates in the Louisville metro area, Frankfort, Lexington, Paducah, and Northern Kentucky). You can also see a sample ballot for every county in Kentucky at the Secretary of State’s website.
You can access much of this information on Centrenet by navigating to Campus Life > Student Life > Centre Votes.