Kentucky is among the vast majority of states to receive a request from the Department of Justice for its full, unredacted voter rolls, including “personally identifying information” such as driver’s license numbers or at least partial social security numbers. Their chief election official, Secretary of State Michael Adams, responded with the publicly available version — and like the case in many other states, including red ones, eventually was sued in response for not complying fully.
In this interview with Declare’s Miranda Combs, Adams describes the process, his reasoning, and his surprise at DOJ not reading the original files his state shared for apparently months. He also talks about the role of federalism in elections, and the experience of those in his job trying to secure voting sites and poll workers amid such a belligerent political culture.