The Neathery-Cave Springs precinct voting house in Clinton County.  November 2, 2005.  1:31 p.m. CST.

     Finding a place to put a ballot box in rural Kentucky was no problem, years ago.  Every precinct had at least one general store and that was the natural choice for a polling place.
     It's not that simple today.  Most of the country general stores are gone, and it can be nearly impossible to find a good central location for a precinct's voting machine.  In those cases, county governments sometimes build a place where the people can vote.
     That seems to have been the situation that resulted in the building, above, in Clinton County.  The concrete-block building, with a sign declaring it the "Neathery Cave Springs Voting House", is weatherproof and has electricity for the voting machine, lights, and perhaps a space heater.  There is even a unisex privy behind the voting house.
     There are 514 registered voters in the Neathery-Cave Springs precinct, and 60.8 percent of them voted in the 2004 general election, according to figures from the Kentucky Secretary of State office.
     The sirens towering above the voting house probably are part of a severe weather warning system.  As I recall, a tornado ripped through this part of Clinton County a few years ago.