By DYLAN LOVAN
Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- A judge allowed a large group of late voters into Louisville's only polling place after they were held up by traffic.
The doors at the Kentucky Fair and Expo Center, the city's only polling location, were locked at 6 p.m. but a group gathered outside. Video from news outlets showed the group banging on doors outside the center.
Jefferson Circuit Judge Annie O'Connell ordered the doors back open until 6:30 p.m. after two Democrat U.S. Senate candidates asked for the order. O'Connell wrote in a ruling Tuesday evening that "traffic congestion" was cited as a reason why the voters were late getting to the polls.
About 175 more voters were let in after the court reopened the polling location, Jefferson County Clerk spokesman Nore Ghibaudy said.
Ghibaudy said poll workers urged all voters in the building's lobby to get in a line before 6 p.m. He said the voters who were locked out were not in the building's lobby just after 6 p.m. when the doors were shut and locked.
Advocacy groups also called for extended voting time in Lexington, citing long lines in one of the state's largest cities.
The ACLU of Kentucky, the state's NAACP chapter and other groups sent a letter to the state's Board of Elections requesting a one-hour extension in counties that have had long lines. Voters who got into a long line in Lexington before the polls closed were allowed to vote until nearly 8 p.m. Tuesday night.
Kentucky's Secretary of State, Michael Adams said despite some delays, Kentucky has been "a national success story."
"Look at the turnout," Adams told reporters at the fairgrounds site in Louisville on Tuesday. "Turnout is through the roof."
The state allowed all registered voters to send absentee ballots by mail and had two weeks of early voting ahead of Tuesday's election.
Adams said the state typically sees about 20% turnout for a primary election, but he expects it to exceed 30% in this primary.
In Tuesday's headlining race, Amy McGrath is trying to hold off a late surge from Charles Booker, a first-term state legislator, as she fought to become the Democratic nominee against Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Booker's campaign gained momentum after he attended recent protests against the March police killing of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in her Louisville home.
