Secretary of State Michael Adams, testifying before a U.S. House committee on Monday, stressed that "Kentucky knows best what’s best for Kentucky."
Adams spoke to the committee Monday on the role of Congress in federal elections, saying there should be no "micromanagement" of state legislatures and elections officials.
Adams was one of several witnesses invited by the U.S. House Committee on House Administration to speak as Democrats continue to push for several bills to expand voting rights and prevent Republican-run states from restricting voting access.
Adams, a Republican, said Congress should not overstep its authority and force election procedures on states, citing the bipartisan election reform bill passed in Kentucky this year to allow three days of no-excuse early voting.
"Why was Kentucky able to pass a bipartisan election reform measure — the most significant modernization of our system since 1891 — that made it both easier to vote and harder to cheat, that had widespread support across the political divide?" Adams asked. "Why did Louisiana and Vermont follow suit? Well, because you did not stop us. You allowed democracy to work."
More:Senate fails to advance sweeping voting rights bill aimed at expanding early voting, registration
In June, a Senate filibuster blocked passage of the For the People Act, Democrats' sweeping voting rights bill designed to counter new state laws passed by Republican legislatures this year to restrict access to early and mail-in voting.
Democrats also hope to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would restore parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 and require certain states clear changes to voting laws with the federal government.
Congressional Republicans opposed the For the People Act as federal overreach, with Senate Minority Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., calling it a "transparently partisan plan to tilt every election" to the advantage of Democrats.
Adams told House members in the video hearing Monday to "respect the laboratories of democracy that lead to innovation in a decentralized election system," as "Kentucky knows best what’s best for Kentucky."
More:More days and ways to vote: How Kentucky is breaking with red states on voting access
While saying that he doesn't agree with every election bill that's been offered by some Republican state legislatures, he added that election policy "should be made not by a caucus, not by a think tank, but by election administrators who work in a bipartisan fashion."
"I understand the concern many of you have in state legislatures acting in a partisan fashion in passing election legislation, and I would encourage you to avoid doing the same thing yourselves," Adams said. "Do not be victims of a false narrative."
Kentucky underwent an unprecedented expansion in voting access during the COVID-19 pandemic last year, thanks to executive orders issued by Adams and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear to allow no-excuse mail-in voting and weeks of early in-person voting.
Kentucky voting laws had previously been some of the most restrictive in the country, with a prohibition on no-excuse early voting, polls closing at 6 p.m. and a large percentage of the population disenfranchised due to a prior felony conviction.
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Under the new election reform law passed by a nearly unanimous vote this year — and in stark contrast to other GOP-led state legislatures — Kentucky will now have three days of early voting under statute for the first time in state history, though it will go back to not having a no-excuse mail-in voting option.
As for congressional Democrats' desire to protect and expand a voter's right to cast a ballot by mail, Adams asserted that an unnamed "high level official at our state NAACP" asked him not to expand mail-in voting.
"He said my community doesn't want that," Adams said. "… In Kentucky, African Americans want to vote in person. Everybody does, that's our culture, we're just different. That's our tradition."
Asked who the NAACP official was, Adams' spokeswoman Miranda Combs said "it was a private conversation and he's not going to out him without his permission."
In response to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott calling a special legislative session to take up a bill with sweeping voting restrictions, Democrats in the Texas legislature are planning to leave the state for Washington, D.C. — denying Republicans a quorum to pass bills and create another highly visible showdown over voting rights.
Reach reporter Joe Sonka at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today at the top of this page.
