Exit polling complaints pop up in state Senate special election

August 25, 2009 | Jack Brammer | Comments 9

FRANKFORT –The state Board of Elections has received complaints about exit polling in Tuesday’s special election for a vacant state Senate seat in northeastern Kentucky.

Voters in the 18th Senate District — Mason, Bracken, Robertson, Carter, Lewis and Greenup counties — are electing a new state senator Tuesday to replace Republican incumbent Charlie Borders of Grayson who resigned July 15 to accept an appointment by Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear to the state Public Service Commission.

Candidates in the election are Democrat Robin Webb of Grayson, Republican Jack Ditty of Greenup County and independent Guy E. Gibbons Jr. of Flatwoods.

Some exit pollers in the election are allegedly asking voters for their name and Social Security number and some are asking voters before they enter the polls to bring out names of people who already have voted, said Les Fugate, an aide to Secretary of State Trey Grayson , whose office oversees elections.

Fugate said there is no law against asking people for their Social Security number as long as it does not constitute voter intimidation. He said exit pollers seeking names of people who already have voted allegedly want to know who voted so they know who not to contact the rest of the day for campaigning.

County clerks have directed poll workers to warn exit pollers not to intimidate voters, Fugate said.

Most problems, he said, have occurred in Carter and Lewis counties, “but it’s been widespread.”

Fugate did not know what, if any, political party was behind the exit polling.

–Jack Brammer