Why voting in Jefferson County should go smoothly in 2026 after Election Day delays

As most voters in the November 5 election know, we had a problem with our e-poll bookswhich were delayed, meaning people had to wait up to an hour to vote. Some voters couldn’t wait long and didn’t come back later, and I sincerely apologize to anyone who finds themselves in that situation. The good news is that there were probably very few such people.

Comparing voter turnout rates in Jefferson to other big blue counties, like Fayette, there was almost exactly the same percentage of voting loss between 2020 and 2024. So the delays in the morning had no influence on the results.

I want to give you some details about what actually happened, now that we’ve had a chance to review it.

First, our excellent team of election officials was able to work under pressure in that demanding environment, and then by mid-morning help us resolve the issue that was delaying the e-poll books. It took longer in some districts.

At least one of our election officials wrote to the Koerierblad to complain about a comment from my office; and further ask some detailed questions about the e-poll books we use. I can say categorically: in no way were our district officials at fault in any way. When we explained the delay to the audience that morning, we noted early reports that districts that didn’t enable their e-poll books early in their format were having the most trouble downloading data over the Wi-Fi connection. We always train our agents to do that as a first step, but they have to have a lot ready before 6 a.m. and the data usually doesn’t take that long to download anyway.

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It turned out that there was too much data for the Wi-Fi system that Election Day morning and turning it on earlier wouldn’t help much.

Second, since 2020, we have been mandated by the State Board of Elections to use e-poll books to replace paper schedules. These are relatively new items, and unlike the simple, robust, optical scan voting machines we’ve been using for decades to count our votes, there’s still a learning curve with this technology. Initially we had a product from a smaller company called Tenex that had limited features and support. In 2023, we transitioned to the ES&S product, which enabled things like automatic selection to print on-demand ballots. That’s why early voting is happening so quickly now.

But we also have more than 200 polling locations on Election Day and plenty of equipment to deliver days in advance. That’s why we’re using a Wi-Fi update process on Election Day, instead of waiting until Sunday to download the data over the cable and then deliver the machines. So far this has been sufficient and our supplier was confident that this process could handle more data, but that turned out to be optimistic.

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Now that we know and understand what happened, it will be quite easy to solve this problem, and our vote in 2026 should go smoothly. In my 26 years as county clerk, I am pleased to say that we have had virtually no problems conducting our elections, even in the challenging COVID year of 2020.

I am confident that with the great, bipartisan staff we have in our Elections Center and the thousands of civic-minded election officials who volunteer for every election, future elections will remain secure, accurate, and as free from delays as the law allows.

Bobbie Holsclaw is the Jefferson County Clerk.

This article originally appeared in the Louisville Courier Journal: Opinion: Election postponement in Jefferson County will not happen in the 2026 election