Trump has signaled he intends to "lead a movement" to end mail-in ballots and potentially stop the usage of some voting machines.
Speaking in the abstract, without a specific order in hand, Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams says the state largely votes in person, about 98% or so, and he doesn't expect that the president would target the small fraction of Kentucky voters who vote absentee.
"I don't think that's what he's talking about. Historically, he's not criticized absentee voting through that sort of a method," the Republican official says. "He's talking about states that just mail ballots out to people that they automatically register. So I don't I don't think we have an issue. But even if we do, the right to vote absentee is in our state constitution. It's very firm, and I don't expect that we would change that."
As for voting machines, again, Adams says Kentucky's system seems unlikely to be affected, as it uses paper ballots and scanners.
Questions do arise, however, when it comes to a Department of Justice request to review Kentucky's voter rolls — something Adams says the DOJ can certainly do but within some limits due to personal information, such as Social Security numbers and driver's license data, being included.
"We're not sure yet what all they're going to be entitled to. Obviously, we want to cooperate with the federal government, but we're not going to be able to give up personal information if that's restricted," Adams explains.
To be clear though, Adams says the DOJ has not asked to see ballots.
"If they did ask to inspect the ballots — and I think they would have a right, that's why we have to keep them — they would just get boxes and boxes and millions of ballots, but they wouldn't be able to tell anything personal like who voted for whom," he says.
Kentucky's constitution requires a secret ballot.
As for Trump's designs on the election process, Adams says the president's pattern seems to be one of laying out specifications that aren't necessarily mandated but do come with the threat of losing federal funding if they're not met.
Adams grabbed headlines and drew sharp criticism from within the GOP ranks for cooperating with Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear to make voting easier during the pandemic. Asked how he feels about the signals Trump is sending on election policy, Adams says he doesn't see a realistic path to the necessary bipartisan support for changes in election law.
"I think that would be difficult because it would be a measure that could be filibustered by the minority party and no one thinks that they're going to be able to pass a major election legislation without a bipartisan approach," he says.