Kentucky voters decide federal, state and local races Tuesday

Almost all counties expected to report early, absentee votes in first report

Kentucky voters will elect members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, state senators and state representatives, and the mayors of Lexington and Louisville on Tuesday, and will decide a statewide ballot measure. Polls close at 6 p.m. local time, which is 6 p.m. ET and 7 p.m. ET in different parts of the state, according to the Associated Press.

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in each of those contests, the AP said. The information comes from the AP Decision Team, which published the key facts and data points it will monitor as the votes are tallied.

The most recent comparable turnout figures come from 2022. About 1.4 million votes were cast in Kentucky’s 2022 race for U.S. Senate, and about 23% of all ballots cast in that race were cast early or by absentee ballot, according to the AP. The AP’s advance vote tracker carries the latest advance-vote totals for this year’s election.

Early and absentee ballots are expected to surface quickly. Almost all counties in Kentucky are expected to report all results for absentee and early votes in the first vote report on election night, according to the AP, and most counties are expected to release results for in-person Election Day votes in the first report as well.

The 2024 general election offers a timing benchmark. The first results were reported starting at 6:05 p.m. ET on Nov. 5 — five minutes after the first polls closed — and the state reached 50% of votes reporting at 8:15 p.m. ET, according to the AP. It reached 90% of votes reporting at 9:30 p.m. ET.

“The Associated Press does not make projections,” according to the organization’s election guidance, and it will declare a winner only when it is determined “there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap.” If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory, while making clear that it has not declared a winner and explaining why.

Kentucky requires an automatic recount in races for statewide office, U.S. House and state Legislature if the vote margin is 0.5% of the total votes cast for the office or less. The AP may still declare a winner in a race subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is “too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome,” according to its guidance.

The AP is collecting its coverage of the 2026 election, including Kentucky results, at apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.