How Fayette’s new county clerk prepared for her first election, plus her top voting tip

For newly appointed Fayette County Clerk Susan Lamb her charge as the chief election officer in Kentucky’s second largest county is simple: Get as many voters to the polls as possible.

“I would love to see us increase our voter turnout,” Lamb said. “I really want to figure out what keeps a person from thinking their vote doesn’t count. Once I find that out, I’m going to prove them wrong. We have had elections that have been in the teens, or the single digits.”

Lamb said she doesn’t have a voter turnout prediction for the May primary. The coronavirus pandemic has made it tricky to track or predict voter turnout, she said.

After being appointed in January to fill the unexpired term of former county clerk Don Blevins Jr., Lamb will oversee her first election Tuesday.

Don Blevins Jr. served for 13 years in the position that oversees land and motor vehicle titles, marriage licenses and elections. Prior to Blevins Jr. being appointed, his father, Don Blevins Sr., served as county clerk for 35 years. That means for the first time in nearly 50 years, someone with the last name Blevins will not oversee an election in Fayette County.

Lamb, who served on the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council for four terms before retiring in December, said she has immersed herself in election law, procedure, software and training since taking office Feb. 1.

The clerk’s office will have plenty of staff and eight to 10 voting stations at the University of Kentucky’s Kroger Field for early voting, which begins Thursday and goes through Saturday.

The Kentucky State Board of Elections and secretary of state, which oversee elections statewide, employed new software for tabulating results last year. There were delays in the release of results by county during the May and November 2022 elections. Instead of results being released in batches, the vote totals for the county were released after all the votes were tabulated.

Lamb said county clerks do not have control of when and how those county-by-county results are released.

“We are mandated by state law,” Lamb said. “That’s the thing the public needs to understand.”

With a much shorter ballot this year, Lamb said she hopes results will be released more quickly.

Lamb, who also spent 21 years in the council clerk’s office prior to being elected to the council in 2014, was known as stickler on the council for following parliamentary procedures and council rules.

Her assessment of how the county and the state conducts elections: “It’s totally bolstered my confidence. It’s so amazing to watch this process.”

Lamb is already reaching out to various community groups to educate the public about how secure voting is and also wants to expand the office’s social media presence to help educate voters.

One tip Lamb stresses to potential voters still getting used to paper ballots: Make sure to fully color in the box next to the candidate you wish to vote for. Do not put any pen marks in a box of a candidate that you don’t want to vote for or elsewhere on the ballot.

Lamb would like to get other locations for early voting. She is working with Mayor Linda Gorton to find a large enough city-owned space, such as a warehouse, to make that happen.

Early voting has proven to be successful. Lamb said more than 3,000 people in Fayette County voted early in November.

If early voting gets more people to the polls, she’s not opposed to expanding it past three days, though expanded access would require action from the Kentucky General Assembly.

“If the state would allow it, I would definitely support it,” Lamb said.

Because she is filling an unexpired term, Lamb will be overseeing the November general election while she is running to keep her position.

A Democrat, Lamb said she has been nominated by the Fayette County Democratic Party to run for the seat in November. The Fayette County Republican Party will also nominate a contender. The party is expected to do so by the filing deadline of June 6.