16-05-2025
Adams credits bipartisan effort to improving voting process
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams spoke Wednesday to the Owensboro Rotary Club on topics such as voting, human trafficking and education.
Adams, a 49-year-old Paducah Republican, spent much of his time talking about elections, which his office is tasked with overseeing.
Adams credited bipartisanship within the General Assembly that passed election bills to make voting more accessible and secure, citing early voting and requiring voters to show their driver's licenses prior to casting ballots at the polls.
'…I got some of my best ideas from people who supported my opponents … had legitimate ideas that I didn't totally agree with but there were some parts I could borrow,' said Adams to the group gathered inside a room inside the Owensboro Country Club. 'And the other part of that is, it gives your elections a better look and you have more public trust when people turn on the TV or read the newspaper, and they see we're working together across party lines; it's not one party trying to seemingly rig the election for their side. …We do this in a fair way and listen to everybody.'
On election security, Adams said votes are marked on paper ballots and then calculated electronically through a machine that's not hooked to the internet, taking away any outside hacking ability.
However, Darin Tapp, former Daviess County Republican Party chairman, has maintained that election fraud exists within the state.
Adams disputes the claim.
'I carry on my phone a screenshot of a tweet from the leader of that (accusation) from this county and I'll paraphrase … 'you're the government, I will never believe anything that you say,' ' said Adams after the meeting. 'So there are people, because I'm the government and whatever I say, they're automatically going to reflect the opposite regardless of facts. These are not fact-based people; they don't care what I say and there's nothing I'm going to be able to say to persuade them. The good news is that these are really an extreme fringe that doesn't reflect the opinions of the vast majority.'
For Adams, early voting, which provides multiple days to cast ballots prior to Election Day, has proven to be among the successes of bipartisan election law changes.
'I think having just one day to vote is unreasonable,' he said. 'I just got my driver's license renewed. Imagine if the DMV was just open one day a week.'
During the meeting, Adams touched on a proposed election bill to attract more poll workers by seeking funding to increase their pay.
Adams said the bill was introduced during this year's session but never received any traction. He added that an exact pay increase has yet to be determined.
'…It wasn't going to move because they weren't going to reopen the budget, which I get,' Adams said. 'So that bill will be reintroduced and we'll be able to get a financial impact statement on it. So we don't know a number of what it's going to cost.'
With this being a non-election year, Adams said he's been spending time promoting a new program to combat human trafficking.
Called Kentucky Businesses Against Trafficking, the goal is to 'raise awareness of trafficking and provide businesses with the resources needed to identify and report trafficking,' according to the secretary of state's website.
Adams said knowing what to look for can lead to tips that can help law enforcement investigate possible human trafficking within the state.
'Human trafficking is a modern form of slavery,' Adams said. '…I'd love to tell you that's not our problem and that it's some other country's problem or even some other state's problem but it's not,' Adams said. 'Here in Kentucky there have been 1,000 prosecutions launched of human trafficking, and there have been 2,500 victims who have been freed because of those prosecutions.'
Adams added that human trafficking statistics show that it's more prevalent in rural areas than urban.
'It's easier to hide this kind of stuff in a rural environment than it is in an urban environment,' he said.
Adams also discussed education and how the state needs to keep students above the national average in math, reading and science once they leave elementary school.
Adams, whose office is also the state's chief business administrator, said education is important because it's a quality used to attract and keep companies.
'…It looks like our problem is not before our kids get into kindergarten; our kids our super sharp into the fourth grade; our failing is when they're in middle school and when they're in high school,' Adams said. 'And to be very clear, there's no obvious boogeyman here; there's not a simplistic solution here. …It's not our educators' fault. They've been teaching the way they've been taught to teach with the methods they've been taught in education school.'
Adams predicted that the General Assembly will likely take a harder look at how to improve the state's educational standing during the 2026 session.
'…The legislature did not get deep into education policy this session; I do expect that they will in the next session and so I'll be part of that conversation,' he said.
