The Board of Elections on Tuesday revealed plans for two additional voting centers for election day this year.

The board chose Holy Spirit Catholic Church at 4754 Smallhouse Road and the Richardsville Community Center at 1775 Richardsville Road in the hopes of improving access for nearby residents.

“I feel good about where we are right now, and with the addition of this larger election day site at Holy Spirit, I think that’s gonna be great,” County Clerk Lynette Yates said.

Holy Spirit Catholic Church will allow for better access within the 1st and 3rd Districts as it sits near the border between, Yates said. The Richardsville Community Center will be the only center located in the 5th District, which previously had none.

“We have four centers that are bordering (the 5th District) because it’s our largest district and our most rural,” Yates said. “Most people do come into town (to vote), but we wanted to open up something out there for those further south.”

The addition of Holy Spirit and Richardsville Community Center bring the total planned election day centers to 14, including:

• Ephram White Park, 885 Mount Olivet Road
• Living Hope Baptist Church, 1805 Westen Ave.
• Michael O. Buchanon Park, 9222 Nashville Road
• Cumberland Trace Elementary School, 2464 Cumberland Trace
• Phil Moore Park, 7101 Scottsville Road
• Sugar Maple Square, 1347 Ky. 185
• Warren Central High School, 559 Morgantown Road
• Warren County Cooperative Extension, 5162 Russellville Road
• Eastwood Baptist Church, 500 Eastwood St.
• First Baptist Church ROC Gym, 621 E. 12th Ave.
• Smiths Grove Methodist Church, 333 N. Main St.
• State Street Baptist Church, 340 State St.

Primary election voting locations, open May 21, will include 12 of those 14 centers with the exception of Holy Spirit and Richardsville Community Center. Voters can utilize any of these centers regardless of where they reside in both the primary and general elections.

Early voting plans remain unchanged from 2023, with voting locations open May 16, 17 and 18 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Ephram White Park, Living Hope, Michael O. Buchanan Park, Phil Moore Park and Sugar Maple Square.

Yates said a trolley will once again be available to shuttle voters across town.

Ryan Dearbone, president of the local NAACP chapter, was one of several volunteers from the Warren County Voting Project, a work group dedicated to improving access for voters across the county, who attended the board meeting.

Members of the project recently presented Yates with a list of 10 questions answered during Tuesday’s board meeting, including discussion of how precinct boundaries were drawn, efforts to make voting accessible to foreign-born citizens, voting equipment efficacy and more.

“Personally, I think (Yates) answered most of the questions very well,” Dearbone said. “Now, that doesn’t mean that they haven’t sprung up some other questions.”

Yates shared a graph depicting voter general election turnout between 1994 and 2023 showing that Bowling Green’s turnout is typically within 2% to 5% of the state’s overall turnout.

Turnout was roughly 60% in 2020, just over 40% in 2022 and just under 40% in 2023. Dearbone said COVID-19 has played a part in the downturn, though non-presidential elections regularly show 10% to 15% lower turnout.

He added that while the county clerk’s office is “doing all it can in order to educate people,” there is no “silver bullet” to increasing turnout. Dearbone said education and disseminating information will be key to success.

“Especially with this being such a big election year nationally, it’s going to be important that the information is put out there properly,” Dearbone said.

Dearbone said the group will continue meeting and plans to return with more questions if necessary once they’ve discussed as a group. He said they ultimately hope to help both city officials and the public through their input gathering and questions.

He added they were disappointed with the board’s choice not to add Henry F. Moss Middle School to the list of centers.

“That was disappointing, because there are so many people in that area that can’t drive out to the (Warren County Cooperative Extension) office just because of proximity,” Dearbone said. “That co-op is a little out of the way for some people.”

He was similarly disappointed the board did not bring back a voting location at Bowling Green Towers at 1149 College St. and chose not to place a location on Western Kentucky University’s campus.

Dearbone said these locations would provide walkable access to residents in the area as well as employees and students on WKU’s campus.

He said the additional centers are ultimately a positive step, but may not go far enough.

“Even the Secretary of State Michael Adams recently said there’s not enough voting locations throughout the state, and he wants to try and implement more of those,” Dearbone said. “We’re hoping that there are more added and that some of these areas that we feel are underserved will end up getting some more voting (access) as well.”