Bullitt County’s long voter lines hurt hotel business

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - On Election Day, Bullitt County had five voting locations. 

One voting location, Paroquet Springs Conference Center, is next door to the Country Inn Suites Hotel. The long lines in the parking lots blocked the entrance and made it virtually impossible for anyone to in.

“When I got here at 8 a.m., I was shocked at the number of cars and people,” General Manager Sam Patel said. “I was overwhelmed. I did not expect this. No one informed me about the situation.”

According to the Bullitt County Clerk, there was low voter turnout during early voting, and his office was also shocked at the number of people out at the polls on Election Day.

“In the three days of early voting, we only had a little over five thousand voters,” Bullitt County Clerk Kevin Mooney said. “My concern was either we are going to be very busy on Election Day or we aren’t going to have any significant turn out. We didn’t know which way to read it. We just thought this was going to be a low turnout event.”

At Paroquet Spring Conference Center, voters crowded the joint parking lot between the center and Country Inn and Suites.

Patel says from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., there were over 300 people in his parking lot. 

Mooney said that he deliberately put signs up directing voters away from the hotel, but unfortunately, that didn’t change the direction of the lines.

“I feel like my business was shut down yesterday,” Patel said. “There are so many elderly people with their grandkids, who had been standing there for two and three hours. When they needed to use the restroom or some elderly people got tired, they had to come into the hotel and use our lobby or the restroom or other facilities. As a human being, I cannot deny them.”

In the future, Mooney said he hopes they can add more locations, workers and machines to prevent this from happening again.

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