The May-June Christian County Grand Jury on Friday received a report from the Christian County Board of Elections regarding the May primary election.
It explains the technical error by Tenex that led to a contested Ward 7 Hopkinsville City Council Republican primary. It was determined 109 voters who actually live in Ward 8 were allowed to vote in Ward 7 due to an error in how software was programmed at the G104 precinct—which is split between the two wards.
Tablets used by poll workers were mistakenly programmed by Tenex to direct poll workers to give each G104 voter the Ward 7 ballot featuring Mark Graham and Doug Wilcox, regardless of which ward they actually resided in.
Initial results showed Wilcox winning by a single vote and Judge John Atkins ultimately ruled in favor of Wilcox as the winner, as the results from the unaffected precincts actually increased the margin of victory for Wilcox to 36 votes.
The Board of Elections also notes it seems many in Christian County were unaware of the voting locations where any eligible Democrat or Republican could vote.
They recommend that the addresses of the locations be better advertised going forward using various methods including representatives of the clerk’s office speaking at various clubs and government meetings in addition to beginning the process of notifying the public of the voting locations sooner.
The board also recommends encouraging lawmakers to increase the number of early voting days in Kentucky and putting larger signage at previously used polling locations on election day to direct would-be voters to the correct places.