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Kentucky's governor, secretary of state at odds over November voting plan

Posted at 9:29 PM, Aug 12, 2020
and last updated 2020-08-13 06:32:40-04

With the general election now 82 days away, Kentucky’s governor and secretary of state are at odds over how voting should work.

Right now, the two are working to find a resolution and let voters know what they can expect when they cast their ballots in November.

The issue of contention: absentee voting.

“I believe that we can come to a good resolution,” Governor Andy Beshear said.

Beshear wants everyone in the commonwealth to have access to no-excuse absentee voting, but Secretary of State Michael Adams disagrees.

“In the primary, 75% of votes were cast absentee,” Adams said. “You can handle that when you have 29% turnout, as we did in the primary, but if you have 70 or 75% turnout like we expect in November, the system will crash.”

Adams submitted a preliminary voting plan to Beshear that included scaled-back plans for absentee voting, expanded early voting and added polling locations to keep what he believes will be about 2 million ballots from creating a backup.

MORE: Adams' proposals stop short of mail-in voting for all

“I will say he and I started a lot closer in negotiation for November than we started back in April for the June primary,” Adams said. “We were very far apart. We came down and met in the middle.”

Beshear will review the secretary of state’s proposal and make a decision in the next few days.

“We had a very productive meeting,” he said. “I believe that we are very close to coming to an agreement. I think he said 48 hours to someone earlier. I think that’s fair and reasonable.”