Kentucky braces for long lines in Tuesday's primary after cuts to polling sites and an expected record turnout

The state’s typical 3,700 polling places were reduced to about 200 locations amid coronavirus concerns

Kentucky braced for long lines in the state's primary on Tuesday with the reduced number of polling places leaving an expected record amount of voters with a single location in some major cities to cast an in-person ballot.

The state's typical 3,700 polling places were cut down to about 200 locations amid coronavirus concerns, and a massive increase of mail-in ballots and early voting, that the Democrat governor says will lead to record turnout.

Celebrities and high-profile figures like LeBron James and Hillary Clinton have criticised the decreased polling locations as a form of voter suppression amid the fight for a Democrat challenger to Mitch McConnell's Senate seat.

Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams and Democratic Governor Andy Beshear agreed during the height of the pandemic to allow absentee ballots and two weeks of early voting to reduce exposure to potential Covid-19 infections at the delayed primary.

"Smooth going in Jefferson County this morning. Wait, where are the 600,000 people supposedly voting today?" Mr Adams said on Twitter on Tuesday morning.

Criticism has been focused on Jefferson County, where there are reportedly 616,000 registered voters and only one in-person polling location for the city of Louisville, at the city's convention and expo centre at the state fairgrounds.

In the state's second-largest county, Fayette County, residents of Lexington have only the football field at the University of Kentucky to cast a ballot.

Governor Beshear responded to the claims of voter suppression, saying that the number of absentee ballots requested plus early voting ballots already cast was enough to set a voter turnout record.

"I know there are concerns about numbers of polling places in different locations, we should always be concerned if we think more people could vote in a different way," Mr Beshear said.

"We have more people that have requested absentee ballots than voted in any of the primary elections in the past."

He continued: "I think that's the opposite of voter suppression. We've had 170,000 people have their voting rights restored, which is I think the opposite of voter suppression. Now, that doesn't fit in Twitter very easily."

The Twitter narrative began after voting rights advocate Ari Berm commented on a Washington Post story that highlighted the single polling location for Louisville, where half the state's black voters live, "is going to be a disaster".

Basketball star Lebron James, filmmaker Ava DuVernay, and politicians like Hillary Clinton, Stacey Abrams, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, and more supported the narrative that it was an example of voter suppression in the Democrat primary.

As of Monday, the county clerks reported nearly 1million Kentuckians either requested a ballot or voted early. The previous record for a primary election in the state was in 2008, when 922,456 residents voted.

Republican state representative Jason Nemes, who mounted a failed legal challenge to get more locations in the state's largest counties, told The Associated Press that people would be discouraged from voting due to it being too difficult.

"If Charles Booker barely loses, I think the integrity of that election is in question," Mr Nemes said.

The winner, either Mr Booker or Amy McGrath, will go up against the Senate majority leader, Mr McConnell, in November.

Mr Booker said his campaign would keep a watchful eye on voting and mount a legal challenge if needed.

"There should not have only been one location," Mr Booker said. "That will just naturally disenfranchise folks."

Louisville NAACP President Raoul Cunningham, a longtime civil rights activist, told The Courier-Journal that the primary was not an effort to suppress black voters and that state should receive credit for allowing mail-in and early voting this year.

"This is a totally different election than any of us have experienced in Kentucky," he said. "I was concerned if the African American vote would be suppressed, but I really don't think it will be."