Judge denies request, polls close in Louisville at 6 p.m. as scheduled
A Jefferson County judge has denied a motion to extend polling hours after “severe technical issues” caused hours-long voting delays in Louisville Tuesday morning.
The Kentucky Democratic Party and Kentucky American Civil Liberties Union had filed a motion in Jefferson Circuit Court asking to extend polling hours to make up for the delays.
According to the request, “significant county-wide delays” began almost immediately and the electronic poll books crashed “approximately every 3 minutes for the first three and one-half hours of voting.” Voters waited as long as 2 1/2 hours to vote at one location, according to an affidavit by a county clerk.
But Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Eric Haner denied the motion just 30 minutes before polls were set to close in Kentucky Tuesday.
Haner ruled that the request did not establish that anyone in Louisville had been denied the right to vote, and the polling locations did not close.
KDP Executive Director Morgan Eaves said in a statement: “We are extremely disappointed by this ruling given the extensive technical issues in Jefferson County, which caused some voters to wait in line for more than three hours. Polling locations across Jefferson County were functionally closed. These disruptions weren’t just unacceptable — they deprived Kentuckians of the fundamental right to vote.”
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg had joined the chorus of those encouraging Jefferson County and the state Board of Elections “to keep the polls open longer and provide all available accommodations to ensure that everyone gets a chance to vote in this important election” Tuesday morning after widespread voting problems earlier in the day in the heavily Democratic city.
However, the Jefferson County Clerk’s office responded to WDRB with a statement: “We have no intention of keeping polls open later than 6, and we would appreciate if the mayor would refrain from telling us how to do our job. We take this very seriously, and we are very confident that everyone will be able to vote by 6pm today.”
The Kentucky Republican Party filed an opposition to the motion and said there is no statutory authority or Kentucky case law that permits a poll location to be kept open past 6 p.m.
The only authorized body to change the voting hours is the Kentucky General Assembly.
This same issue was addressed in the November 2023 election when a Jefferson County Board of Elections attempted to keep the polls open due to interruptions caused by a gas leak.
At that time, the Kentucky Court of Appeals found there was no legal grounds to keep the polls open later.
Most polling places in Kentucky close at 6 p.m. Eastern. If voters are in line at 6 p.m., you can stay in line to vote.
