Director of Content and Engagement, Commonwealth Policy Center

The Secretary of State is tasked with operating Kentucky’s elections and protecting the voter information of its citizens. While these tasks aren’t ones that are necessarily partisan, the office is elected in a partisan election. However, in a rare showing of cooperation, current Secretary of State Allison Lundergan Grimes (Democrat) invited Secretary of State-Elect Michael Adams (Republican) to observe her office’s processes during the recanvas of the 2019 General election this past week. Secretary-Elect Adams tweeted out that he would gladly accept the invitation. Secretary Grimes, when asked about the invitation responded, “I have conducted over 20 recanvasses in my 8 years as Secretary of State, it’s a big and important part of the job and my hope is the 2020 Presidential Election will not be his first exposure to this process.” This cooperation is a welcome sight in a political climate that focuses more on partisanship than on our ability to find points of agreement.