Although campaign advertisement spending this spring is well below last year, it still could impact voter turnout come Tuesday. Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes predicts one out of 10 registered voters will go to the polls. Grimes says money spent on political ads this year is also probably a tenth of what was paid last year. "There is no question and no doubt that negative nasty ads, it doesn't have the impact of actually positively bringing folks out to vote, but rather deterring them from getting out on Election Day," said Grimes.
Pre-primary polling results have been commonplace for weeks now across Kentucky. What impact that has on driving voters to or away from the voting booth next Tuesday is hard to gauge. Grimes hopes voters get out, no matter what the polls show. "I think the freedom of speech and especially the press, it's a great thing,” she said. “But at the end of the day, the motivation to be able to go vote is to realize the impact that your voice has, the impact that one vote has in elections."
If 10 percent of the 3.2 million registered voters cast ballots Tuesday, Grimes says it will equal the turnout four years ago. She says that was the lowest primary turnout for a governor's race. In 2011, Governor Beshear did not face opposition in the primary. ?
