KY secretary of state’s plan for November election has no universal mail-in voting
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams has submitted a preliminary plan to Gov. Andy Beshear to conduct the November general election without no-excuse absentee voting by mail for all Kentucky voters.
Adams confirmed Tuesday that his draft to Beshear late Monday did not include the expanded voting provision used in the June 23 primary election.
Beshear has said in recent days that he is pushing Adams to allow mail-in voting in the Nov. 3 general election that features races for president, U.S. Senate, Congress and the state legislature.
State law requires the two men to agree on a plan to conduct the election. Beshear’s office said negotiations will begin soon.
With mail-in voting in June, voter turnout — almost 29 percent — was the highest in a Kentucky primary election since 2008. About 75 percent of all ballots were mailed in.
Beshear, a Democrat, and Adams, a Republican, jointly agreed to “no-excuse” absentee ballots for all Kentuckians during the primary election, after Beshear used emergency powers granted by the state Constitution to move the primary from May to June due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The governor said the practice should be used again in November. But Adams has voiced concern about it.
Adams said Tuesday in a telephone interview that he has “no ideological objection” to the expanded voting used in June but did not think it would work in November.
“With an expected voter turnout of 70 percent in November, it would be expensive to go to universal mailing and would be difficult for county clerks to keep track of all those ballots,” said Adams.
“We will make sure there are absentee ballots for those who need them but I don’t think we can send them out to all eligible voters,” he said.
To vote absentee by mail in Kentucky, the voter typically needs an excuse, such as being elderly, disabled, ill, out of the country, on deployment for the military or a student out of his or her home county.
Adams said he also is recommending in-person early voting and more in-person polling places. In the June election, many Kentucky counties had only one polling place.
He also mentioned exemptions for people who are not able to get a photo ID because county clerk offices have been closed. Kentucky’s new voter photo ID law was to take effect for the November election.
Adams was doubtful that all polling places — about 3,700 in the state —will be in operation. “We have lots of polling places in churches, schools and nursing homes. Many of those are not likely to be available given the virus.”
Most Kentucky counties are in search of poll workers, he said.
Adams said he believes Beshear and he are “close” in coming up with a final recommendation for the November election. “Our offices have stayed in touch in recent weeks and we will come up with a plan,” he said.
Adams said Beshear and he were supposed to meet Tuesday afternoon but the governor was ill.
“I wish both of them well, but knowing how much a workhorse the governor is, he will address this as soon as possible,” said Adams.
Lawsuits are pending in federal and state courts to keep expanded absentee voting for the November election.
Meanwhile, Anna Whites, a Frankfort attorney, is questioning whether the State Board of Elections ignored the state’s Open Meetings Law by forming a “task force” or “work group” to advise the board on issues relating to the November election.
Whites and Amye Bensenhaver, a former state assistant attorney general who specialized for 25 years in Kentucky’s Open Records and Meetings Law and is co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalitions, said the work group, formed last month, seemed to meet in private.
They said they sent an open records request to the board for records but were told that it is the board’s “position that the work group you are referencing is not a ‘public agency,’ as defined and subject to, Kentucky’s Open Meetings and Open Records statutes.”
Whites said Tuesday she is considering asking state Attorney General Daniel Cameron for an opinion on whether the Open Meetings law has been violated or filing a complaint in Franklin Circuit Court.
Benshenhaver, who wrote a commentary about the issue Monday, said she wants public agencies to think about work groups they form and how they are accountable to the public.
State Board of Elections chairman Ben Chandler said the task force was proper. “That’s fine. They can say what they want,” he said. “It was just research. We did the same thing in the primary.”
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 1:50 PM.
