Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams announced last week that “10,000 deceased voters dropped from the rolls.” He further explained that in August 2021, 10,693 names were dropped from the voting rolls because they were deceased, 706 moved out of state, 369 felony convictions and 40 voters were judged mentally incompetent.

Kentucky has 3.5 million registered voters. Is this all he could find to do?

In July 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice entered a consent decree against the Commonwealth of Kentucky in United States v. Commonwealth of Kentucky (E.D. KY 2018) because Kentucky had failed to maintain accurate voting lists as required by the National Voter Registration Act. Kentucky agreed to make reasonable efforts to remove registrants who have become ineligible due to a change in residence. Therefore, Kentucky has been or should have been purging the registration rolls since 2018.

This is the law. We are required to do this. Standing in front of the cameras telling us you’ve done this is not really impressive.

Adams has neglected to focus on some really important questions. Has he reviewed the eligibility of 3.5 million registrants? Has he audited any county? How many of the deceased voters voted in 2020? How many voted that didn’t meet residency requirements? How many convicted felons voted that were ineligible? How many non-U.S. citizens voted? His press release did not indicate that he removed one non-U.S. citizen? Has he verified any signatures in any county? Has he checked for duplications? Has he addressed the issue of drop boxes and the chain of command?

All voters, regardless of political affiliation should demand transparency and voting integrity. Both sides must speak up and quit accepting the charades that we are doing something.

Paula L. Ratliff

Smiths Grove