Election Day is underway in Logan County and Kentucky. The polls close at 6 p.m. Tuesday night.
Not many contested races are on the ballot, but some have drawn great interest. They include the follow:
*The U.S. Senate race between Republican Mitch McConnell, who has been in the office for 30 years and Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky’s Secretary of State. This has drawn national attention because it could affect the balance of power in the Senate. If enough Republicans win, McConnell most likely would become Senate Majority Leader. McConnell has basically run his campaign against President Barack Obama instead of Grimes, which is appropriate, since most of his focus the past eight years has been keeping Obama from succeeding in any plan he proposes.
*The state representative race between three-term incumbent Martha Jane King, a Democrat from Lake Malone who grew up in South Logan, and Jason Petrie, a Todd County lawyer who is running as an independent.
*The race to succeed long-time incumbent District Judge Sue Carol Browning, who did not seek reelection. The candidates are Ken Williams, a Logan Countian, and Nancy Calloway, a Todd County resident.
*The Logan County jailer’s race between Republican Phil Gregory, a former coroner, and Wendell Jackson, a retired state policeman. Jim Ray is serving as interim jailer following the retirement of Bill Jenkins, who left after 17 years in the office.
*Magisterial races matching Democrats and Republicans. In the First District, Russell Poore, who is in his first term in office, is against Dickie Carter, who served in the same office 11 years. In the Fourth District, another first-term incumbent, Drexel Johnson, is opposed by Matthew Latham. And in the fifth district, three-term incumbent Jo Orange faces Auburn automobile/real estate dealer Phil Bilyeu. Carter, Latham and Orange are the Republicans.
Contested city council races are also on the ballot in Auburn and Russellville.
Chris McGinnis of WRUS radio has announced his station’s plans for coverage of the results as follows:
“WRUS will be posting updates on local races live from the Logan County Courthouse on this page. We will have the Coaches Corner Show live from Roy's BBQ at 6:30 p.m. Then we will air ABC NewsRadio's election coverage until we have local returns finalized. Don Neagle and Chris McGinnis will give you those results.
“With our new transmitter, our nighttime signal has vastly improved, but if you still can't hear us, we will stream it all here: www.network1sports.com/station/wrus or, EPB Smartnet customers can listen on EPB TV channel 350.”