Secretary of State Adams should be praised, not pilloried by GOP, for vote-by-mail compromise
Secretary of State Michael Adams thinks he might have a cure for COVID-19.
“My hope is that the heat from the fires of Republicans burning me in effigy will kill the coronavirus,” he joked. Kind of.
Apparently, Adams, a Republican, is getting a lot of blowback from Republicans, on Facebook and elsewhere, for his agreement with Gov. Andy Beshear on allowing more people to vote by mail in Kentucky’s June 23 primary DURING A PANDEMIC. This, needless to say, is insane. Can we not agree that you should not have to risk getting a deadly virus in order to vote?
Some Republicans think allowing more absentee voting will unleash the hellhounds of voter fraud and Democratic wins. This is probably because President Donald Trump told them so, even though he himself votes absentee in Florida. Like many things, Trump says, there’s no real evidence that mail-in voting helps Democrats. As proof, we could look to Utah, a reliably Republican state that uses mail-in voting.
The bipartisan agreement between Beshear and Adams, that will allow us to avoid the fates of Wisconsin voters who were forced to go to the polls, is a compromise.
For example, it will send a postcard to every registered voter in May telling them how to find the online portal to request an absentee ballot. Excuse-free absentee voting is a relaxation of voting restrictions that has long been sought by Kentucky Democrats. On the other hand, the postcard can’t be forwarded, and if it’s returned as undeliverable, Adams can start the process to purge them from voter rolls, long a Republican desire. (The rest of the process would be for that person to not vote in the next two federal elections.) In-person voting will still occur at select locations.
The final details, such as who’s going to pay for the postage, should be ironed out in a State Board of Elections meeting later this week.
Here are some reasons, Adams and Beshear should be praised, not pilloried:
▪ The average age of the 16,000 Kentucky poll workers is 65, the group most at risk for COVID-19, Adams said. In addition, he said, many polling places are in nursing homes, or closed schools, or relatively small places. “We don’t have enough locations and a lot of them are not designed for social distancing,” Adams said. “Regular voting was not feasible.”
▪ Kentucky has some of the most restrictive voting rules in the country, something that Adams acknowledged with House Bill 596, which got lost in the coronavirus shuffle of the last days of the Legislature. We basically limit absentee voting and confine in-person voting to 12 hours on one day. Other states are far more flexible. This will show people there are better ways.
▪ County clerks have been advocating for mail-in voting since the pandemic started, and this agreement appears to take many of their concerns into account. Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins said he applauded the agreement even though he’s concerned about larger counties like his.
“It is the right thing to do, but I’m not sure how we’ll pull it off because of the potential volume,” he said. “We need state board to enact some flexibility to get this done.”
Permanent change?
The bigger question is whether we’ll still be under a state of emergency in November so that more flexible voting can continue. If not, we’ll go back to regular voting, with the addition of Adams’ true red Republican voter ID requirement, which goes into effect in July. This requirement puts new burdens on poor, rural and minority voters, so you can’t say he hasn’t followed Republican ideology on these issues. UNTIL THERE WAS A PANDEMIC.
Josh Douglas, a University of Kentucky law professor and voting rights expert, said he thinks once people get a taste of the convenience of mail-in voting, we will join Utah, Oregon, Washington and Colorado into making it permanent.
“Overall it’s a good plan, it gets both sides of the political spectrum something they want, and it makes it easier for Kentuckians to vote,” he said. “He (Adams) should be praised for seeing the situation in front of him and changing his prior viewpoints.”
Former Secretary of State Trey Grayson said it’s frustrating that Adams is feeling pressure for doing the right thing.
“You can’t have a traditional election in a pandemic,” he said. “The alternative is horrible turnout and potential danger.”
Sometimes crises present people with opportunities for major change that would not happen in the normal world. These can be bad, such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell floating a beloved right-wing idea to let states go bankrupt, thus forever abolishing state pension systems. Or they can be good, common sense measures, such as making it easier to vote. The GOP shouldn’t take away Michael Adams’ membership card just because he recognized a crisis and forged the compromise to an opportunity.
This story was originally published April 28, 2020 at 1:14 PM.
