BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT THOMAS - Steve Pendery had been Campbell County judge-executive-elect for less than a day when he received his first complaint from a constituent.
"This person was angry because they had to wait more than two hours to vote in Wilder on Election Day," said Mr. Pendery, a Republican and Fort Thomas mayor who beat Democratic incumbent Ken Paul on Nov. 3.
"But it was more than just one call. The phone was ringing off the hook."
The long lines and longer delays weren't unique to a corner of Campbell County. All across Northern Kentucky, voters and candidates complained about waiting from 30 minutes to nearly three hours to cast ballots.
Such long lines could discourage people from voting and drive future turnouts even lower than the less-than-50-percent in Northern Kentucky this past election, some officials fear.
Buying voting machines might seem like the easiest solution. But at $5,000 apiece, more machines would be a costly proposition for county fiscal courts, according to county clerks in Northern Kentucky.
"Without 70 or 80 new voting machines, we couldn't make much of an impact, and that would cost as much as $400,000," said Kenton County Clerk Bill Aylor.
"And you have to remember all three counties just purchased new electronic machines within the last few years. So I'm not sure the fiscal courts, or the taxpayers, are ready to have that kind of money spent on new machines," he said.
Mr. Aylor said changes under the federal "motor voter" law require that a person vote in the precinct where he or she lives, not where registered.
That means if voters move and do not keep their address current with the clerk's office, they must fill out some paperwork at the polling place.
"That takes a lot of time and holds the lines up," Mr. Aylor said.
Campbell County Clerk Jack Snodgrass said he is not making excuses, but in a letter from the county board of elections - which he serves as chairman - he offered these reasons for the long delays:
More people have registered in recent years, so while percentage turnout has been higher in some past elections, more people came to the polls this year.
This was the most-crowded ballot in Kentucky history, with races for federal, Statehouse, county, city and some school board positions.
Two constitutional amendments were on the ballot: one to allow the General Assembly to meet every year; the other to allow the assembly to reduce or eliminate some property taxes. Voters needed more time to read and understand the amendments, Mr. Snodgrass said. There were many voters who had not voted since the new machines were bought, and they took more time because they were unfamiliar with how they worked.
Some smaller cities had write-in candidates, which adds additional voting time.
Mr. Snodgrass said the board of elections "will look into this matter in the future months, and we will work to solve this problem."
Mr. Pendery said he will work with the clerk's office, the fiscal court and the board of elections to "find a way to provide more voting machines, because we need more machines."
But he also wants to investigate voting patterns to see whether some voting machines in low-turnout precincts can be moved to busier precincts. The precincts where turnout is not heavy could then be combined, Mr. Pendery said.
"The first five precincts that reported in Newport had a grand total of just about 700 votes," he said. "You get that many votes, easy, in some of the precincts in Fort Thomas or out in or near Alexandria."
Mr. Aylor said that wouldn't work in Kenton County. Even small precincts in Bromley and parts of Covington - where there was a hot city commission race - reported brisk turnout. And the precincts in the south end of the county are already spread out about as far as they can be.
He suggests that the state use more understandable wording than the legalese used to explain the proposed amendments.
"On the annual (General Assembly) sessions, it could have simply read, 'Do you want the General Assembly to meet every year?' and the voter could have marked yes or no. But the ballot language was five or six sentences long and was very confusing," he said.
Voters can help keep the lines moving by staying informed and knowing the issues and candidates on the ballot, Mr. Aylor said.
Boone County Commissioner-elect Robert Hay, a Florence Republican, said he heard some complaints about long lines in Boone County.
"The ballot was very complicated and very crowded this year," Mr. Hay said. "But if people are discouraged from voting because of the lines, maybe we need to go out and make the added expense of more voting machines."
