County Line - Winter 2026
Voter registration trends by county: 2021-25
Jennifer Burnett 2026-02-27 11:50:03
The Kentucky State Board of Elections updates voter registration statistics monthly. The most recent report for December 2025 shows that there are 3,349,449 registered voters in the commonwealth.
Among the approximately 3.35 million registered voters in Kentucky:
• 1,766,772 (52.7%) are female, 1,579,901 (47.2%) are male
• 1,375,378 (41.1 percent) are registered with the Democratic Party, 1,601,098 (47.8 percent) are registered with the Republican Party
• An additional 372,973 (11.1 percent) are registered as “other,” including Independent, Libertarian, Green Party, Constitution Party, etc.
Current county-level registration by party affiliation
In December 2025, the counties with the greatest percentage of voters registered with the Democratic Party include Breathitt (77.1%), Wolfe (72.2%), Knott (68.2%) and Elliott (66.9%). Counties with the greatest percentage of voters registered with the Republican Party including Leslie (86.3%), Clinton (85.7%), Monroe (84.4%) and Clay (84.4%).
Northern Kentucky counties have the highest percentage of voters registered as “other” — Kenton (17.2%), Boone (16.6%) and Campbell (15.8%). In two counties — Clinton and Magoffin — less than 4% are registered in this category.
Trends in voter registration
Total registration
Between December 2021 and December 2025, total voter registration in Kentucky declined by 208,264 voters, a 5.9% decrease, despite population growth during the same period.
Over these four years:
• Registration increased in only 13 counties: Bullitt, Edmonson, Grayson, Kenton, LaRue, Logan, McCracken, Nelson, Pendleton, Pulaski, Rowan, Shelby and Washington
• Registration declined in the remaining 107 counties
The largest numeric declines occurred in Jefferson (-49,769), Fayette (-27,328) and Boone (-10,483) counties. By percentage, the largest increases were in Shelby (+8.3%), Rowan (+6.2%) and Kenton (+4.0%), while the steepest declines were in Christian (-18.6%), Boyd (-14.1%) and Martin (-13.8%).
Party registration statewide
From December 2021 to December 2025:
• Democratic registration declined by 250,896 voters (-15.4%)
• Republican registration increased by 9,225 voters (+0.6%)
• “Other” registration increased by 33,407 voters (+9.8%)
During this period:
• The percentage of voters registered as Democrats declined from 45.7% to 41.1%, a 4.6 percentage point decrease
• The percent of voters registered as Republicans increased from 44.7% to 47.8%, a 3.1 percentage point increase
• “Other” registration rose from 9.5% to 11.1%, a 1.6 percentage point increase
Party registration by county
Democrat
From December 2021 to December 2025, the number of registered democrats declined in every Kentucky county. The largest numeric declines occurred in Jefferson (-36,585), Fayette (-15,791) and Hardin (-7,906) counties.
Over this period, the percent of voters registered as democrats declined the most in Carlisle County (-14.2 percentage points) followed by Bracken (12.5 percentage points) and Carroll (12.1 percentage points). The percent of voters registered as democrats fell by more than 10 percentage points in 18 counties.
The percent of registered democrats declined by less than one percentage point in three counties: Clay, Fayette and Leslie.
Republican
Between December 2021 and December 2025, the number of registered Republicans increased in 89 counties and declined in 31 counties.
The largest increases occurred in Kenton (+3,112), Bullitt (+2,930) and McCracken (+2,787) counties, while the largest declines were in Jefferson (-18,970), Fayette (-12,044) and Boone (-5,177).
Over this period, the percent of voters registered as republican increased in 115 counties and declined in five: Clay, Fayette, Jefferson, Leslie and Oldham.
Seven counties saw the percent of voters registered as republicans increase by more than 10 percentage points: Bracken, Carlisle, Carroll, Menifee, Roberston, Trimble and Union.
Other
From December 2021 to December 2025, the number of voters registered as “other” increased or remained flat in all but three counties: Bell, Breathitt and Christian.
The largest numeric increases occurred in Jefferson (+5,786), Kenton (+3,719) and Warren (+2,033) counties.
Notably, the percentage of voters registered as “other” increased in every Kentucky county over the four-year period. Boone, Christian, Elliott, Gallatin, Lincoln, Morgan, Simpson and Warren counties each saw increases of two percentage points or more.
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