Following the November 3 general election in Kentucky, which took many people by somewhat of a surprise by the results, voter registration books have now been “re-opened” for those who wish to vote in future elections, according to Clinton County Clerk Shelia Booher.

New voter registration opened back up on Tuesday of this week and will remain open until just prior to next year’s primary election. However, Booher said she wanted to notify any voter that wishes to change their political party affiliation that they have until December 31 of this year to do so in order to vote in their “new” party’s primary election next May.

Also, it appears as if there will no “recanvass” of voting results from last week’s election. The deadline for any candidate to seek a recanvass was 4 p.m. this past Tuesday, November 10 and as of press deadline, no such request by any losing candidate had been sought.

Only six races, all for state constitutional offices, were on the November ballot, and the only close race was that of Attorney General, where Democrat Andy Beshear defeated Republican challenger Whitney Westerfield by only about 2,000 votes statewide.

As far as last week’s election, County Clerk Booher was both surprised and pleased with the turnout in somewhat of an off year election. She said she didn’t expect the turnout last Tuesday, in which 27.75 percent of the voters took the time to cast a ballot, up from just 23 percent during the May primary.

Of the 7,417 registered voters in the county, 2,028 voted. “It (turnout) was higher than I had predicted, but I’m pleased of the percent of people who did vote,” Booher said.

There were a total of 146 absentee ballots cast, with 101 of those coming in the clerk’s office using the walk-in machine for people who were going to be out of town on election day. Only 47 paper absentee ballots were returned, with only one being rejected because it had no signature.

A still ongoing question for next year’s presidential primary in Kentucky is still unanswered, at least for most County Clerk’s, that being the situation pertaining to Kentucky’s GOP party switching to a “caucus” voting system.

Booher said late last week her office still did not have any specific information on how the caucus voting will work or how it may or may not pertain to county clerk’s offices.

As far as last week’s election, Booher said, “I would like to thank the election precinct officers, the election commissioners, the tabulators, and my dedicated office staff for their time and effort during the November 3, 2015 election. I would also like to thank Clinton County News, WANY radio and Sidney Scott II for the reporting. Most importantly, I would like to thank each and every Clinton County voter who took time to cast their vote.”

The 2015 election is expected to be minor in comparison to the 2016 ballot, when a new president will be elected during the federal election year. It will also see, in Kentucky, a U.S. Senate race, all six Congressional district races, and locally, in the non-partisan general election, another city council election and some members on the Clinton County Board of Education.