NEWS RELEASE
GEORGETOWN, Ky. (Sept. 12, 2016) – Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes today continued her statewide voter registration effort – one of the largest and longest in recent memory – by kicking off a tour to tout Kentucky’s online voter registration system at GoVoteKY.com. She is encouraging Kentuckians to register to vote using the portal and to participate in the Nov. 8 general election.
“We made history in March with the launch of GoVoteKY.com, making online voter registration available for every Kentuckian. Through our work, more than 40,000 citizens have either registered to vote for the first time or updated their registration online,” said Grimes. “After our successful GoVoteKY.com tour in the Spring, we’re back on the road traveling across Kentucky ahead of the Oct. 11 deadline to get even more Kentuckians registered.”
Grimes visited Simmons College of Kentucky last week in Louisville, and Bluegrass Community and Technical College in Lexington and Georgetown College in Georgetown today – three of nearly 20 stops on the full tour of Kentucky universities, colleges and community and technical schools in all parts of the Commonwealth. She made eight stops during a Spring tour.
“Certainly, the right to vote is one of the most cherished and significant blessings we have as citizens of the United States. This statewide endeavor to increase voter registration is a good and important one. We at Georgetown are glad to be a part of the GoVoteKY Tour,” said M. Dwaine Greene, president of Georgetown College.
The town hall discussions focus on the benefits that the portal provides to Kentucky – especially in cost savings and improvements in accuracy of voter rolls – and the future of the Commonwealth’s elections, including a pilot project for electronic poll books and the push for early voting.
“We’ve made it easier to register to vote with GoVoteKY.com. Now, we have to make it easier to actually cast a ballot. Kentuckians are wondering why our state doesn’t already offer early voting when 37 other states already do. Let me say, we are working hard to make it happen, but we need your help,” Grimes told today’s attendees. “Call your county clerk and state representatives and senators and ask them to back our plan.”
Grimes urged attendees to help turn around the Commonwealth’s lackluster voter turnout statistics. In the 2015 general election, only 30.6% of registered Kentuckians cast ballots statewide, continuing a concerning trend of poor turnout in elections.
“We have to reverse these numbers. Our democracy depends on more people being involved – not fewer. I know the nasty campaigns and negative media are incentive to tune out, but I am asking you to not become part of the statistic that sits out. Go to the polls on Nov. 8,” Grimes said.
Grimes’ Fall tour includes stops at nearly a dozen of Kentucky’s colleges or community and technical schools ahead of the Oct. 11 deadline to register to vote for the general election. She will visit Somerset Community College on Wednesday and Henderson Community College on Friday. More information about the tour is available at sos.ky.gov.