So someone explain to me - re: Kentucky polling places

[TlalocW]

What good does it do to shut down polling places during primaries? It seems to me like it's republicans playing their hand too early because now hopefully measures can be taken for the general election, or am I being naive? Was McConnell facing a tough challenger that having fewer polling places will help him? Is it because they think having fewer polling places will hurt the democrat that's polling most strongly against him?

What am I missing?

TlalocW

[Journeyman]

1. The Washington Post had a good explanation for it this morning . . .

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/primaries-voting-kentucky-new-york/2020/06/22/a14ec922-b4ab-11ea-a8da-693df3d7674a_story.html

Despite poll worker crunch, Kentucky voters poised to break turnout records as they embrace mail ballots

Voters in Kentucky were on track to cast ballots in record numbers for Tuesday’s primary despite the risk of coronavirus infection and shortages of poll workers, thanks in part to the widespread embrace of voting by mail.

Michael G. Adams, Kentucky’s Republican secretary of state, projected that total turnout would exceed 1 million, including roughly 800,000 mailed ballots. The final figure would shatter the previous record of 922,456 primary voters set in 2008.

Poll worker cancellations had forced election officials to staff fewer than 200 polling locations instead of the usual 3,700, but Adams said an avalanche of mail-in balloting and in-person early voting helped lessen demand on the polls Tuesday.

The numbers reflected an overwhelming shift to absentee voting by Kentucky voters, even as President Trump has railed against mail ballots and claimed without evidence they lead to massive fraud.

Interesting article with lots of in-depth analysis. I'm curious to see how it aligns with the final assessment of the day's canvassing in Kentucky.

[onetexan]

2. Thank you for posting this! Should be interesting to see how the results turn out.

[marybourg]

3. The fact that poll workers, who are mostly seniors,

did not volunteer to work at this election, because of the virus. That’s in addition, of course, to any nefarious scheme the publicans had hatched.

[PoliWrangler]

4. Another factor is the main single center

actually has 18 polling stations within. It has a lot of space. And shuttle service from the main depot is free.
Im not convinced this is the worst thing.

[questionseverything]

5. 2 hour waits are not acceptable

pols should stay open later than 6pm , most peops don't get off work much before that

the parking lot was along ways away

I am sure the distance to the lone polling station was a problem for some

it could of gone worse but people were still disenfranchised

[msongs]

6. puts the voting location far away from many voters who now must go out of their way

to vote. voter turnout reduction strategy

[TlalocW]

7. Good info in that article but...

I still don't understand how the situation benefits anyone. Did Mitch have a primary challenger that fewer polling places could nullify that challenger? Do republicans believe fewer polling places will give them the democrat they think they want Mitch to run against? Something else I'm not considering?

TlalocW