By Gage Johnson, Multimedia Coordinator
With the general election quickly approaching, the pandemic has affected the voting process and paved the way for multiple voting options for citizens in the Murray, Kentucky, community.
First and foremost is the traditional way of in-person voting—just with a couple twists said Calloway County Clerk Antonia Faulkner.
To limit the number of people exchanging ballots and coming in contact with one another, this year Calloway County will not have its typical 23 to 27 locations.
“Calloway County is going to have four supercenters for voting,” Faulkner said. “And by supercenter that just means any registered voter in Calloway County can go to any of these four voting locations and vote that day.”
Those four locations will be the CFSB Center and each of the Calloway County elementary schools: North Elementary School, Southwest Elementary School and the East Elementary School gymnasiums. Where normally voters are designated a specific location, they are now able to go to any of these four locations.
These four locations are ADA-approved and have been used in the past, so voters should be familiar with the setup at each location.
Each polling location will have a clerk who will sign voters in, scanning their ID to check their name and address.
Each location will have three e-scan machines for paper ballots and one ADA approved e-slate machine—a machine that uses a dial to make one’s voting decisions.
The e-slate machine is easily accessible to those in a wheelchair and has earphones for those who might have trouble seeing the screen.
Faulkner said she thinks that giving voters paper ballots is safe, but if a voter feels more comfortable they can wear gloves that will be made available on site.
The doors will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. If the site becomes too busy, Sheriff Nicky Knight will be able to disperse deputies to help enforce social distancing to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Along with voting in-person on the Nov. 3 Election Day, voters may participate in early voting or absentee balloting.
Early voting will take place three weeks in advance of the election at the Calloway County Judge Executive building—the Robert O. Miller Annex—located at 201 S. 4th St.. It will be open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday starting Oct. 13 and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.
For Murray State students who live out of state, or those who would feel safer to mail in their ballot, absentee voting is the way to go.
“If they want to get their vote through the mail, they can go online to govoteky.com and they can apply for their ballot to be mailed to them or they can of course call their county clerk’s office,” Faulkner said. “So ours would call the 270-753-3937 and we’ll actually do the process up here for them.”
The deadline to request an absentee ballot is Friday, Oct. 9. After applying, their ballot and multiple other items will be mailed to them in order for Calloway County or their respective county to obtain their vote.
“They’ll get their ballot, they’ll get an instruction sheet and they’ll get an inner envelope and an outer envelope,” Faulkner said. “So fill out your ballot, put it in the inner envelope, sign that, put that in the outer envelope, sign that, postage is paid, seal it up and send it in to us.”
Faulkner encourages people to get out and vote. Faulkner said to make sure they are registered to vote by visiting govoteky.com and to call your respective county clerk’s office if a voter is in need of assistance.
“As soon as they can, check and make sure they’re registered to vote,” Faulkner said. “Check and make sure their address is right so we can get the right information out to them.”