Early voting for the 2024 primary kicked off this morning.

The polls are open in some locations through Saturday for Kentuckians who would like to make their voice heard before Election Day on May 21st.

Kentucky's leading elections official cast his ballot today.

Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams has been an advocate for early voting.

And today, speaking to us, he made the case for voting early and urged voters to turn out in primaries.

I like to say that there are two groups of voters who benefit from our early voting law.

One is the voters who vote early because there's no line and you can vote on a Thursday, Friday or even a Saturday, which is really helpful to working people to have that flexibility.

The other group of voters who benefit from early voting are those who do not vote early because the lines are just that much shorter on Election Day on Tuesday.

I'm very pleased that the legislature did not repeal early voting days.

There was a threat of that.

Fortunately, we were successful in lobbying and getting that killed and we do have early voting now in this primary as well as in November.

We expect a light turnout.

We typically have a light turnout in our primaries.

I think our primaries are increasingly important, though, because as the state gets more polarized geographically, as Louisville gets more blue and Lexington gets more blue and the rural areas get more red, increasingly the primary is the general.

And so if you have ten or 15% turnout in your primary, those people are picking our leaders functionally in November.

We have a lot of uncontested elections in November.

Secretary Adams was referring to Senate Bill 61, a bill that would have ended the three day period of no excuse early voting in Kentucky.

It went to the state and local government committee and the Senate, but it did not go to the House or Senate floors.

Kentucky Edition caught up with some Lexington poll workers and primary voters who made the case for early voting.

Last year was a little bit more busier for the first day, but again, we're just not even halfway into the afternoon.

So I'm looking forward to a big turnout.

It has gotten so popular and I stress very hard to have people to come out and do early voting.

It helps out a lot.

I appreciate being.

Able to vote early and I think there are a lot of politicians who want to just take it away and just have one day voting in it.

So inconvenient for so many people.

If you're interested in voting early, check with your county clerk's office about times and locations.

And we do hope you'll join us on primary night.

That is Tuesday as we bring you all the numbers and analysis of the races from our panel of political experts.

That's next Tuesday night.

Beginning at eight Eastern, seve