Perry County clerk posts key 2026 primary voting dates, deadlines

Perry Countians still needing an absentee option face the next clock tick: the clerk’s second excused in-person voting window opens Monday, May 11, and runs only through Wednesday, May 13. The online mail-in absentee portal for the May 19 primary already closed at 11:59 p.m. on May 5, so anyone waiting now has fewer paths left to vote.

Perry County’s election calendar is tight, and the biggest mistake is missing a cutoff without realizing it. Primary voter registration closed April 20 at 4 p.m., and the county clerk says a paper absentee ballot generally must be requested seven days before the election. A medical-emergency absentee request can be made up to Election Day, and military and overseas voters can use the Federal Post Card Application process with the same seven-day deadline.

After the excused absentee windows, no-excuse early voting will run Thursday, May 14, through Saturday, May 16. Perry County’s plan places early voting and excused absentee voting in the county clerk’s office, with a separate one-day site at Gospel Light Baptist Youth and Community Center on Saturday, May 16, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The county’s four voting centers for the primary are Perry County Central High School, Whitaker Athletic Center, Gospel Light Baptist Youth and Community Center and the Perry County Library. The Perry County Courthouse at 481 Main Street in Hazard is also the listed location for the secure ballot drop box.

Election Day is Tuesday, May 19, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time. Perry County says it has 18,492 registered voters and expects to use 21 polling locations for the primary, a reminder of how much traffic the county election system has to manage in a single day. Ballots returned by mail or drop box must reach the clerk’s office by 6 p.m. that day, and the county’s election paperwork identifies Wayne Napier as clerk and Melissa Morgan as election deputy.

The clerk’s office says its election department handles voter registration, updates, voting locations, poll worker recruitment, voting machine security and election results. That makes it the most direct place in Perry County to confirm a registration, check an absentee option or settle a question before the calendar closes in on May 19. The election department phone number is (606) 436-0049.