Legislation that would give state election officials more flexibility in conducting the 2020 primary election has been passed by the Kentucky General Assembly.
Secretary of State Michael G. Adams ex-pressed appreciation to
lawmakers who passed the legislation recently. Adams had testified
before a Senate committee, asking for legislation to empower a change
to the "manner" of an election in case of a state of emergency.
Current state law permits the governor and secretary of state to
change the "time" or "place" but not "manner" of an election. This
measure would free the State Board of Elections to develop a primary
election procedure more open to absentee voting, which may be
necessary if the current pandemic continues into the spring.
At this point, Ken-tucky's primary election has been postponed until
June 23.
"It's my concern, after an exhaustive process of consultation with
our county clerks, the State Board of Elections and others, that we
need to at least be prepared to have an expanded absentee balloting
system available by June 23," Adams said. "I'd like us to be able to
prepare in advance for a situation where we have limited in-person
voting and expanded voting by mail."
Adams ruled out any move to a universal vote-by-mail system, noting
a federal judge's decree that Kentucky's voter rolls have not been
adequately maintained over the past decade, in violation of federal
law. Hundreds of thousands of registered voters—including many who
have moved out of the state and registered to vote in their new home
state—improperly remain on our rolls.
To assure legislators that ballot integrity will be safeguarded even
with expanded voting by mail, Adams clarified that even with expanded
absentee voting, "we would still require people to apply for an
absentee ballot, with some sort of verifying information, before they could be mailed a ballot."
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