Like most things about 2020, voting has changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Where in previous years voting meant waiting in a long and crowded line, this year’s election calls for evaluating different voting methods to see which is the best fit for your health and safety concerns. With Election Day coming up on Nov. 3, now is the time to make sure you have completed the proper steps to vote and brush up on the local races happening in your area, as well as the presidential race. For many college students, 2020 will be the first election they can vote in; for others, it is their first time voting in a presidential election. With important deadlines for the voting process coming up in October, the Kernel has assembled a guide for students who are voting for the first time.

The first step in voting is registering. The deadline to register to vote in Kentucky is Oct. 5 at 4 p.m. New voters in Kentucky can register online at the GoVoteKy website, https://vrsws.sos.ky.gov/ovrweb/. Make sure to have your social security and driver’s license numbers on hand or memorized. Kentucky residents who are unsure about their registration status can check their voter record athttps://vrsws.sos.ky.gov/vic/.

ABC and other outlets have published compilations of voter registration deadlines for all states, so out-of-state students can look up their registration deadline online with a quick Google search. Here are the registration deadlines for states surrounding Kentucky:

Ohio – Oct. 5

Tennessee – Oct. 5

West Virginia – Oct. 13

Virginia – Oct. 13

Illinois – Oct. 18

Indiana – Oct. 5

Missouri – Oct. 7

All states require a social security number and driver’s license or state ID number to register. Out-of-state students can choose to vote in Kentucky’s elections, but they must change their registration, which they can do by visiting the GoVoteKy website supplied above.

Students who are already registered to vote next need to determine how they will vote. There are two basic options: vote in-person or vote by mail.

Voting in-person requires going to a physical polling station. Lexington will have six options for in-person voting on election day:

Tates Creek Branch Library, 3628 Walden Dr.

Northside Branch Library, 1733 Russell Cave Road

Beaumont Branch Library, 3080 Fieldstone Way

Dunbar Center, 545 N. Upper St.

Lexington Senior Center, 195 Life Lane (behind Southland Christian Church on Richmond Road)

BCTC Leestown Campus, 164 Opportunity Way

If you choose to vote in-person on Election Day, prepare to social distance and wear a mask. UK has made Nov. 3 a holiday; classes will not be in session so everyone has time to vote.

Fayette County clerk Don Blevins said polling stations would be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 3. However, polling stations will be open for the three weeks prior to that if you want to vote in-person early.

According to the Kentucky state government’s general election plan, early voting will begin on Oct. 13. All county clerks are supposed to provide a safe location for in-person voting on every weekday and for at least four hours every Saturday. This initiative is designed to expand the time period for voting so that fewer people are present at a polling station at once, making social distancing easier to implement. Blevins said locations have not been chosen yet, but that early voting stations would consistently be the same location and they would all run 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on weekdays and 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Lexington will have six locations for early voting:

Tates Creek Branch Library, 3628 Walden Dr.

Northside Branch Library, 1733 Russell Cave Road

Beaumont Branch Library, 3080 Fieldstone Way

Dunbar Center, 545 N. Upper St.

Lexington Senior Center, 195 Life Lane (behind Southland Christian Church on Richmond Road)

BCTC Leestown Campus, 164 Opportunity Way

Some voters may be concerned about the possibility of contracting COVID-19 while voting and what safety measures are being taken at polling stations. Blevins said that according to the health department, the in-person voting booths do not need to be cleaned between voters.

“We will supply cleaning supplies to the election officers so that if someone coughs or sneezes that can be cleaned as necessary,” Blevins said. “We’re told we don’t need to wipe them down between each voter though.”

This is because of the voting method: all ballots are paper this year, Blevins said, so the contact transmission is low.

“When they vote in-person they’ll be handed the ballot, they’ll fill it out, and then they put it in the scanner themselves, and walk out the door,” Blevins said.

The other option for voting is absentee, or mail-in, voting. In regular elections, absentee voting is normally reserved for people who, like college students, live away from the city they are registered to vote in. Because of the pandemic, any Kentuckian who wish to can request to vote by mail, according to Executive Order 2020-668(1). The Executive Order was based on recommendations from Kentucky’s Secretary of State Michael Adams, who said that absentee voting should be expanded due to concerns of contracting or spreading of COVID-19.  The deadline to request an absentee ballot is Oct. 9 at 11:59 PM.

The portal to apply for an absentee ballot in Kentucky is now open and has three steps: eligibility, identification and address.  If you wish to request an absentee ballot in Kentucky, they can be found at https://vrsws.sos.ky.gov/abrweb/.  Out-of-state students can find information on requesting an absentee ballot by visiting their county’s election office website. Here are the deadlines for requesting absentee ballots in the states neighboring Kentucky:

Ohio – Oct. 31 at 11:59 PM. 

Tennessee – Oct. 27 

West Virginia – Oct. 28

Virginia – Oct. 23

Illinois – Oct.  29

Indiana – Oct. 22

Missouri – Oct. 21

Once you have received your mail-in ballot, fill it out and mail it in immediately. Fayette County residents can see a sample ballot on the county clerk website. According to Kentucky’s general election plans, ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 3 and received by Nov. 6 to be counted. Voters are advised to mail their ballots early due to ongoing instability in the United States Postal Service; in recent months, public mailboxes in some cities and mail sorting machines in some post offices have been removed, limiting the speed at which mail can be delivered. The Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, eliminated overtime for postal workers, banned extra delivery trips and said mail should be held until the next day if delivery centers are running behind. All of this, plus long-standing financial struggles, have caused mail delivery to slow down in some places. The slowdown has raised fears of a backlog in mail sorting that will cause some votes not to be counted, as the volume of mail-in ballots rises due to concerns over in-person voting during a pandemic.

Fortunately for voters who are concerned about sending their ballots through the mail, there will be another alternative for turning in absentee ballots – drop boxes.

The drop boxes are “steel containers that look similar to mailboxes”, Blevins said, and can be mounted on concrete and bolted down. Voters can physically deposit their completed ballot in the drop box and it will be picked up later, without having to journey through the mail.

Lexington has six drop boxes strategically located around the city:

Tates Creek Branch Library, 3628 Walden Dr.

Northside Branch Library, 1733 Russell Cave Road

Beaumont Branch Library, 3080 Fieldstone Way

Lexington Senior Center, 195 Life Lane (behind Southland Christian Church on Richmond Road)

BCTC Leestown Campus, 164 Opportunity Way

County Clerk Office (162 E. Main St.)

Students can protect their vote by filling out their ballot and turning it in early. If you intend to vote in-person, do not request an absentee ballot; according to Section 23 of this election’s emergency regulations, “once a voter has requested a mail-in absentee ballot, the voter cannot vote in person unless the voter does not receive their requested ballot by October 28, 2020.”

Voters can contact their local county clerk’s office with questions; be sure to keep an eye on the various deadlines. November is fast approaching, so now is the time to start thinking about your plans and familiarizing yourself with who’s on the ballot. Whether you go in or stay out to vote, make sure you are doing your part to stay well and protect others.