The primary election is May 21, and there are several candidates seeking their party's nomination. The Pure Politics team has contacted each candidate with a primary opponent to find out who they are, and what they stand for. 

Stephen Knipper is a Republican running for Secretary of State.

Knipper most recently served as Chief of Staff for Leuitenant  Governor Jeanen Hampton. 

Knipper was the Republican nominee in 2015, losing to current Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. A father of five adopted children, he decided to run for the office in 2015 to make the adoption process easier. While this is still part of his platform he says he realized while running that cleaning up the voter rolls was something needed in Kentucky. He says now in 2019, the neccesity has increased. 

"I think I not only have a fresh perspective on it, I think I had the perspective on it, because no one was talking about it," he said. 

Knipper says he plans to keep elections safe by first keeping the voter rolls are clean. 

"The more we approach the end of the year, the more I get concerned about what is happening," he said. "I think there is voter fraud, I think the potential for it is huge."

Knipper says his concern grew with recent developments within the secretary of state's office. The Herald-Leader revealed Grimes had removed State Board of Elections Executive Director Jared Dearing from attending the Election Assistance Commission's Standards Board meeting which was set to focus on upgrading voter machines and technology in states to better protect against cyber attacks. 

"That's troubling to me to find out all these things that seem to be lining up that just started out as a hunch back in 2015, and you look and see where we are in today's poltical environment," he said. 

Knipper says if elected he would use the same plan to clean up voter rolls that was used in Ohio, which survived a Supreme Court challenge. 

Another thing he would focus if elected, is allowing veterans to vote electronically. Knipper says his team has successfully tested a system to allow this.

"We're making it so veterans can vote electronically in real time, and have those results back in Kentucky," he said. "Take the entire process of mail ballot, everything, off, but keep their privacy." 

The secretary of state's office gained national recognition after a Herald-Leader and ProPublica article exposed trouble within the office. This stemmed a piece of legislation stripping the secretary of state of their power on the State Board of Elections, while also changing the makeup of the board by adding two retired clerks to it, and taking away the secretary of state's voting power. Knipper says he supports this legislation although he finds in unforuntate it had to come that point. 

"It gives an opportunity where our county clerks, who work and are really the life blood truly of the election process actually get represenation at the table," he said. "And me? I would be more than willing to share that with them." 

Knipper is running in the Republican primary against Michael Adams, Andrew English, and Carl Nett.