Introduction
On the afternoon of January 21, a group of public officials gathered in Kentucky’s Capitol in Frankfort for a delicate conversation about changing how the state conducts elections. Masked and spread out in a room typically used for committee hearings, they didn’t have much time.
There were only 22 days left in the legislative session.
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The group included state legislators, Secretary of State Michael Adams, Republican and Democratic elected county clerks, representatives of the state elections board and (virtually) a staff member for U.S. Sen. Rand Paul. They took turns laying out what the executive director of the state elections board described as a “hodgepodge” of priorities increasing voter access among them that somehow had to evolve into a bill that could pass. Everyone put their wish lists on the table.