Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes visited Murray State University today as part of her tour to promote a new online voter registration portal. GoVoteKY.com launched late last month and lets users register to vote or update their information.
Grimes says the campaign is targeted at Kentucky’s low voter turnout, with just under 31 percent of the commonwealth's registered voters participating in the 2015 gubernatorial election.
“Imagine with me, 30 other states offering the opportunity for their citizens to go online – as most people are already doing to pay bills, to pay taxes – to be able to check their registration or importantly, register for the first time,” Grimes said.
Grimes invited new voters in the audience to vote, including Madison Schmidt, a freshman at Murray State. Schmidt says the process was simpler than making a trip to her home in Paducah.
“People in our generation, they kind of put us under the bus a little bit since we’re younger and everything,” Schmidt said. “But I think it’s important that all college students have a voice in it. So I think it’s important that I have my voice in it as well.”
Early last month, Kentucky Republicans held a presidential caucus to accommodate candidate Rand Paul’s simultaneous Senate re-election campaign. Grimes purports the caucus process doesn’t always accommodate voters.
“I think what we saw is that there were fewer locations, fewer hours for people to have access to actually vote in that caucus,” Grimes said. “And importantly, the question is left to be seen: are the Republican voters going to show up at the May 17th primary? Do they realize that there are still state races for them to vote on?”
Grimes also spoke on the ongoing state budget negotiations. The Secretary of State says she doesn’t support Governor Matt Bevin’s proposed cuts to higher education.
As of Thursday, more than 15,000 people have registered to vote or update their information online.