FRANKFORT, Ky. — A nonpartisan advocacy group is taking Kentucky’s Secretary of State and board of elections to court. 

What You Need To Know

  • Advocacy group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth is suing Kentucky's Secretary of State 

  • The group is alleging the state's process of removing voters from the rolls violates rights protected under federal law 

  • Secretary of State Michael Adams, R-Ky., said voters in other states should not be able to vote in Kentucky and thus get removed from the rolls 

  • The lawsuit the voter removal process in Kentucky violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993

In a lawsuit, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth alleged the state’s process of removing voters from the rolls violates rights protected under federal law.

The Kentucky General Assembly passed a bill in 2021 designed to clean up the state’s voter rolls. Secretary of State Michael Adams, R-Ky., said it purges voters from state records who are no longer able or eligible to vote in the state.

“We’ve taken 400,000 voters off the rolls in four years, and we haven’t gotten a single complaint, not once," Adams said.

Adams said some reasons voters can fall off Kentucky’s voting rolls include being convicted of a felony or moving to another state and registering to vote. But last week's lawsuit alleges the voter removal process in Kentucky violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.   

“The federal law (says) you can’t take someone off the rolls just because they change their address, and that is not what we’re doing," Adams said. "What we’re doing is we’re taking them off the rolls if they registered to vote. If they tell the Secretary of State in Tennessee, Ohio or Indiana, 'We’re not going to vote in Kentucky anymore; we’re going to vote in your state,' they shouldn’t be able to vote, and we can take those people off the rolls.”

The lawsuit said Kentucky violates federal law by not giving voters written notice before removal and claims Kentucky law creates risk that Kentuckians will be deprived of their right to vote.

Adams said Kentucky's elections have received national and international attention for their transparency and its nonpartisan nature when it comes to voting rights.

“The notion that we’re disenfranchising people is absolutely ridiculous," Adams said. "What we’re doing is preventing fraud, and we have an effort by this shady group that is trying to make it able for people to vote in multiple states at the same time. That's ludicrous." 

The 2021 state law was passed as House Bill 574 in a bipartisan manner and was signed by Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky.

The Secretary of State said more than 4,300 voters were removed from voter rolls last month.

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