After a year ‘under a microscope,’ Kentucky clerks say they’re ready for Election Day

With just under three weeks until Election Day — and even less time until early voting — many of Kentucky’s county clerks say they’re feeling ready for Kentucky voters to head to the polls.

But this year hasn’t been without its challenges.

Election deniers have inundated their offices with often nonsensical open records requests. Poll workers in some counties were in short supply. Changes to the elections process have increased the workload for the already-busy clerks’ offices.

“We’re much more under a microscope right now,” Campbell County Clerk Jim Luersen said. “People are looking for any excuse to pounce on you for anything, any mistake you might make, advertently or inadvertently. Before, for years past, we just did our job, and now you’re just constantly looking over your shoulder.”

In 2022, nine county clerks have retired early and 13 are not seeking election to another four-year term in office.

Secretary of State Michael Adams said he’s seen “a huge improvement” in morale among clerks — and in himself — in the last six weeks or so.

“You really kind of had a perfect storm then of, them trying, us trying, to prepare for the general election, but also this pincer movement with these recount lawsuits and these open records requests that came in, most of them not even really from our own constituents, being directed by the Pillow Guy (Mike Lindell) and so forth,” Adams said. “And, and it was really a one-two punch.”

The Herald-Leader spoke with five county clerks for this story, all of whom said the records requests have slowed down and they’re in good shape on poll workers.

But the Nov. 8 midterm is the first general election since Kentucky expanded access to in-person early voting, which has increased the workload on clerks’ offices, and a large swath of the public remains skeptical of the election process.

“As a clerk, we genuinely just want the elections go off without a hitch,” Luersen said. “The last thing that we’re concerned with is who wins or loses. It’s all about, you know, getting through Election Day without any problems, because you’re walking through a minefield under the best of circumstances. I always said running elections is like juggling chainsaws. There’s so many things that can go wrong; we just want to get through the day without any problems. We have no agenda other than that.”

‘Early voting keeps me up at night’

In Fayette County, Clerk Don Blevins said early voting — which will take place Nov. 3, 4 and 5 — makes finding one, central polling place challenging. There are only so many large venues available, and multiple, smaller locations would take even more people to staff.

Blevins also said his office ordered $100,000 worth of on-demand printers because having 286 stacks of pre-printed ballots — one for each precinct in the county — on site isn’t feasible.

“Early voting keeps me up at night,” he said.

Blevins said Kentucky has one of the shortest early voting windows in the country and he’d like to see it expanded. With the set-up, tear-down, venue and staffing challenges, three days isn’t a long enough window, he said.

Adams, who has pushed for early voting in Kentucky, said just 13% of voters in the May primary voted early. Statewide, only 19% of eligible voters cast a ballot in May.

“I don’t think it would be feasible to expand those voting days until there’s actually a demand for them,” he said. “I want people to use them because I don’t want them to be repealed. But I’m not in a position to go say we need more. Not only do we not have lines, we’ve kind of got crickets during early voting. So unless and until we actually have voters utilize it more, I think we’re stuck with the three extra days that we got.”

However, Adams said trends from other states show that early voting can often take a few election cycles to catch on, and he’s optimistic that can happen in Kentucky, too.

‘Safest and best elections across the country’

In August, election officials across the country, including in Kentucky, were swamped with records requests pertaining to the 2020 presidential election, prompted by prominent election deniers.

McCracken County Clerk Jamie Huskey said some of the things requested weren’t even records her office maintained.

“They said that they were just on certain websites or YouTube channels, and they were told that everybody needed to do this,” she said. “I don’t even really know that people knew what they were looking for.”

One of the most common issues clerks are still running into is the false claim that voting machines in Kentucky connect to the internet.

“There are people that are skeptical,” Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw said. “We do our very best to assure them that everything is fair and safe, and that every vote counts. There is nothing in this equipment that is hooked to the internet.”

Holsclaw said her office has also heard concerns about rogue actors breaking into the machines.

“Kentucky has some of the safest and best elections across the country,” she said. “It is really ludicrous to believe that.”

Hardin County Clerk Debbie Donnelly said she’s had luck changing minds by having one-on-one phone calls with voters about their concerns. She reminds them that Kentucky didn’t have any issues in 2020.

“I said, ‘You know, it’s the other states that, per the news, had those issues,’” Donnelly said. “And they all agreed that I talked to, they say, ‘well, that’s right. We just wanted to make sure.’ And I said, ‘Well, you know, you’ve voted on these machines and, and they do not hook to the internet.’”

Adams, a Republican who is seeking reelection in 2023, has made it his mission to correct misinformation about voting and elections, even if it often puts him at odds with members of his own party.

“This is all downstream from polarization,” Adams said. “The reason that people believe kooky theories about the elections being manipulated by me or the clerks or whatever, is because everyone they know is just like them and they all voted a certain way. Then their candidate lost and they think, ‘Well, everyone I know is just like me, there’s no way my team lost the election, the primary or the general.’”

The secretary of state’s website even features a “rumor control” page to debunk common myths and misconceptions about elections and voting, assuring Kentuckians that voting machines are secure, tested for accuracy and not connected to the internet.

Adams has teamed up with the Kentucky Civic Education Coalition as a part of a bipartisan coalition aimed at boosting civics education in schools. The goal is to offer a completely voluntarily curriculum that, if completed, allows students to graduate with that recognition.

Additionally, the Secretary of State’s Office is planning to issue a Civic Health Index that will assess social trends, engagement, volunteering, knowledge about the government and other areas. Alison Lundergan Grimes, Adams’ predecessor, also issued such reports when in office.

“All we can do is basically raise the alarm,” Adams said. “We can make people aware of of the problem. We can’t really necessarily fix it other than raising awareness.”

Lindell, the MyPillow CEO, an ally of former President Donald Trump and frequent promoter of the stolen election conspiracy theory, has previously encouraged his supporters to “bombard” Adams’ office with records requests. Michon Lindstrom, spokesperson for the secretary of state, said Adams’ office has received 83 open records requests this year, compared to 68 in 2021. Of those, about 25% were about the 2020 election and used boilerplate language.