KY secretary of state suggests making early voting permanent and other election ideas
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams suggested several changes Wednesday to how the state conducts elections, including permanent provisions for early voting and an online portal to request an absentee ballot.
Adams, the state’s top elections official, made his comments in a speech to the 46th annual Kentucky Association of Counties Conference, which was held virtually.
Adams, a Republican, and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear made changes this year to the state’s primary election in June and the Nov. 3 general due to the coronavirus pandemic that is still raging.
“With the election not yet concluded, it’s too soon to decide what reforms we ought to make permanent; but it’s not soon to start a conversation about how to improve our election system,” said Adams in his KACo speech.
Kentucky should consider keeping early voting, he said.
“I don’t believe a permanent three-week voting period is appropriate for every election, but perhaps letting people vote a few days or Saturdays before an election is a good idea,” said Adams. “Certainly it makes voting more convenient for the voter than requiring everyone to show up on one day — a work day — in a 12-hour span.”
Early voting “could ease the burdens of labor and cost on our county clerks if we space the demand of voter turnout over a period of days — more time to vote but with fewer locations to obtain and staff,” said the elections official.
Another Adams’ recommendation is to make the absentee ballot request portal permanent.
“While I don’t favor no-excuse absentee voting on a permanent basis, I do expect increased use of absentee voting in the future now that more Kentuckians who qualify by law currently to vote absentee are familiar and comfortable with it,” he said. “By launching the portal at govoteky.com, we were able to shift much of the burden of processing absentee ballot requests onto Frankfort and off of our county clerks.”
Adams said the portal provides ballot integrity by verifying voter identity and allowing his office to monitor irregularities, such as multiple requests for ballots from a single address.
He also said the state should make the “absentee ballot cure process” permanent.
That involves contacting voters who make a mistake in voting by absentee ballot and giving them a chance to fix it.
“In 2018, we saw about 7.5 percent of absentee votes invalidated for voter error. In our primary this year, despite so many more voters using absentee ballots, we got that rate down to 3 percent,” said Adams.
That was done, he said, by ads from his office and others on how to properly handle an absentee ballot and creation of a “cure process” to give absentee voters who make a mistake with their ballots a chance to correct it and have the vote counted.
Adams noted that in-person voters “who make an innocent mistake with their ballots” are given such a chance to correct them.
Adams also recommended in his KACo speech that the state “adequately fund elections” and permit counties to use vote centers, where people from any precinct can vote.
At minimum, said Adams, the Kentucky General Assembly “should pay the state’s fair share of election costs borne by the counties.”
He said state law requires the state to pay each county clerk a fee of 25 cents per registered voter in the county.
“This number was set in 1984,” said Adams. “You could buy a Ford Mustang for $8,000 in 1984. Now it costs $26,000. Not adjusting for inflation is bad enough, but add to that the fact that routinely the General Assembly suspends the statute and allocates even less money than that.”
Adams said he is “a fiscal conservative, and I’m not looking for new things to spend state money on, but even the most radical libertarian would tell you that elections are a core government function.”
Adams said the fall election is “going very smoothly.”
About 30 percent of Kentucky voters are voting absentee in the general election and about 70 percent will vote in person, he said.
“When this election is over, I turn back into a pumpkin,” said Adams. “If you like what we’ve done to modernize our elections, or even if you don’t, I urge you to contact your state legislators. They want to know what you think, and need to know so they can make informed decisions.”
