Kentucky secretary of state race: What the candidates would change
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Election integrity wasn't always a hot-button issue. But since the 2020 presidential election, voter fraud and election denial have become partisan talking points.
Kentuckians headed to the polls next month will be voting for the first time since then on who they want in charge of their elections.
Secretary of State Michael Adams is the Republican incumbent who handled the presidential election during the pandemic and fought off two Republican challengers in the primary. He faces Democrat Buddy Wheatley, a former Covington fire chief and state legislator.
Here's what both candidates said during interviews with The Enquirer.
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The Republican
Adams is known for making voting safer during the pandemic. Adams and Gov. Andy Beshear delayed the primary election by five weeks and the Secretary of State asked lawmakers to pass legislation that enabled him to implement absentee voting and permit three weeks of early voting.
He said he got death threats for bucking Republican pressure to keep in-person voting mandatory.
"Basically, my career looked like it was going to be over and I had to convince Republicans to accept what I had done … so that they would actually utilize absentee voting and we'd have a safe election, because we just didn't have the ability to facilitate crowds at the polls at a time [when] there was no vaccine, there were no masks, there was nothing," Adams said.
The Democrat
Wheatley has no qualms with how Adams handled the pandemic. But he said it's not enough.
"The barriers that exist to get to the polls in the state is the biggest reason I'm running," Wheatley said.
He tried passing bills when he was in office that would have expanded voter rights sooner, but couldn't get enough bipartisan support. He also questions Adams' connection to far-right politicians through his law firm.
Did mass voter fraud in the 2020 election cost Donald Trump the presidency?
Both candidates said there is unequivocally no evidence of mass voter fraud during the 2020 election.
"I don't believe that there is any evidence to back a claim that seven million-odd votes were fraudulently cast and fraudulently cast for the same person," Adams said.
Wheatley agreed, "The theories might exist. There's not evidence of these things."
Do you support adding more early voting days?
Kentucky's polls are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 7, and there are three days of early voting on the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before the election.
Adams said it's already hard enough for local officials to find poll workers and enough voting locations.
"There's just no feasible way to expand this out weeks and weeks. It is a huge waste of resources and there's just no public desire for it," Adams said. "Until people use the three days we have, there's no point asking for two weeks."
Wheatley supports having two weeks of early voting because it would give more people the chance to vote.
He said Adams' decision to not increase early voting based on less than three years' worth of voter turnout data is "a very immature and short-sighted" way of looking at things.
"That is something I'll work on all year round, being in constant communications with the county clerks to find out the best way that they can have their polls open for two weeks," he added.
Should polls stay open an extra hour?
Adams said keeping polls open an extra hour would be harder than adding extra early voting days.
"We can't get people right now to work a 12-hour day. It's pulling teeth. You make it 13, no one is going to do this," he said.
According to Ballotpedia, 43 states keep the polls open until 7 p.m. or later. Wheatley said polls in Kentucky should also be open until 7 p.m. on Election Day.
"A lot of working families just can't get to the polls by 6 p.m.," he said.
Would you open primaries?
Both candidates want to open primary elections in some capacity. Currently, people can vote only on slates for the party they are registered with.
Wheatley said independent and third-party voters should be able to vote on Republican or Democratic ballots.
Adams supports letting independents vote on a slate of their choosing.
Would Kentucky keep purging voter rolls with the controversial ERIC program?
About 26 states, including Kentucky, clean up their voter rolls with a program called the Electronic Registration Information Center, known as ERIC. The program accesses death records, changes of address and motor vehicle registration to help purge voter rolls. It is used to deter voter fraud.
In Kentucky, it has made it possible to cut about 350,000 voters off the rolls in less than four years. But conservative states are ditching their memberships with the voluntary system after unverified conspiracy theories that ERIC data is being used to help liberal groups.
Ohio has already withdrawn from ERIC. Adams said it won't make sense to continue using the system if other nearby states, like Indiana and Tennessee, also withdraw.
He said the state pays $50,000 annually for its ERIC membership, but that cost could go up if too many states stop using it.
Wheatley said that cost issues should be considered, but it's not smart to ditch the program yet because there aren't any good alternatives for it.
"ERIC originated as sort of a Republican election fraud security program. Now the far-right of that party is wanting to pull out because of conspiracy theories," he said.
Will Secretary of State be your only job?
Adams has continued his work as a lawyer at a political law firm he's a part of called Chalmers, Adams, Backer & Kaufman, LLC.
"It's a de minimis amount of time on my part. Any successful lawyer who builds a national practice, like I have, … delegates that work to others. And so most of my income is passive," he said.
Wheatley points to the company's representation of controversial politicians as a clue to where Adams' values lie. According to news reports, the company has represented former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned amid sexual assault allegations, and election denier Kris Kobach.
"Michael Adams had opportunities to kind of move away from that, but he didn't. … That's what his firm does. They're partisan to one party. And they represent the worst of the election deniers," Wheatley said.
Wheatley, who is also a lawyer, has committed to not take on any clients if he is elected to secretary of state.
Anything else?
Wheatley supports same-day voter registration, instituting an independent citizen-driven redistricting commission and restoring voting rights to people who have committed nonviolent felonies.
"The truest representation of governance that we can get is to [have] the highest voter turnout, and that's what I'm going to be working on as secretary of state," he said.
Adams supports restoring voter rights for some people who've committed non-violent felonies. But he opposes same-day voter registration because it would contribute to long lines at polling locations, he said. Voters can register and vote on Election Day in 20 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Wheatley's proposed change to redistricting, Adams said, violates Section 33 of the state constitution, which gives redistricting power to the General Assembly.
"When I ran in 2019, the first question I always got was, 'What does this office do?' No one knew what it did because it didn't do anything. I've made this office a vantage point for leadership. I've arguably passed more legislation than the governor has," he said.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky election: Secretary of State Michael Adams vs. Buddy Wheatley
