Eligible voters cast ballots in special elections Tuesday to fill vacancies in two Kentucky House of Representatives districts.
Republican Courtney Gilbert won the race to complete the term in House District 24 with 1,025 votes. Democrat Johnny Pennington received 372 votes and independent write-in Craig Astor received 244.
Pennington is running unopposed in the Democratic primary for District 24, which contains parts of Green, Hart, and LaRue counties. Ryan Bivens and Asa Waggoner are running in the Republican primary.
Republican Peyton Griffee was unopposed in the House District 26 special election, and is currently unopposed in the general election for that seat as well. Hardin County Clerk Brian D. Smith said 18 people out of an eligible 4,801 in the three Hardin County precincts cast ballots in the race, which he said was a similar turnout to the eligible precincts in Bullitt County.
Despite only having one person on the ballot, Smith said the special election is still part of the democratic process, and was an opportunity to introduce people to the clerk’s office’s Radcliff location.
“We had a lot of folks stop in even though they weren’t eligible to vote,” Smith said. “They may not have lived in the proper precinct. Some folks were still looking to pay their Nolin R.E.C.C. bill, but it did give us an opportunity to do some work up here in this office and show that it does have the utility. We are looking forward to opening it up for vehicle registration.”
The deadline to register to vote in the May 21 primary election is April 22. Hardin County is debuting new voting locations in this primary election.
“Last year we had 12 locations. This year we’ll have 15 locations,” Smith said. “The largest of those locations will also have additional check-in stations, so not only are we having more locations, but we also should be able to get people through the line faster. That was based on the feedback we got directly from the public.”
Find election information at govote.ky.gov.
