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House Minority Caucus Chair Derrick Graham, D-Frankfort, commenting on election security in the Commonwealth.

House Minority Caucus Chair Derrick Graham, D-Frankfort, commenting on election security in the Commonwealth.

FRANKFORT— The Interim Joint Committee on State Government spent Tuesday afternoon hearing testimony on election security in the Commonwealth.

Assistant Secretary of State Jenni Scutchfield and Karen Sellers, the executive director for the State Board of Elections, testified alongside representatives from voting system companies Election Systems and Software (ES&S), Harp Enterprises Inc. and Hart InterCivic Inc.

“Our elections are secure. There are things to improve, but I believe in our elections,” Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Louisville, said.

Scutchfield’s presentation focused on what Kentucky does to ensure election integrity. In order to vote in Kentucky, a voter must have a valid photo ID, she said. For absentee voters, their ballots undergo an enhanced signature verification process, and voters can track their absentee ballot online. 

In addition, Kentucky has implemented a ban on ballot harvesting, expanded its audit process, increased video surveillance of voting machines and cleaned-up its voter rolls.

Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, asked Scutchfield to go into more detail about the voter roll clean-up process.

For the last couple of years, the Kentucky Secretary of State’s office has been reaching out to voters to update their voter registration, Scutchfield said. The state has also used death certificates to remove dead voters and info from the Administrative Office of the Courts to remove convicted felons.

Kentucky is also in the process of transitioning back to paper ballots. Only 11 out of Kentucky’s 120 counties have not yet fully transitioned to paper ballots, Sellers said. Every county is expected to be using paper ballots by 2024, Scutchfield added. These paper ballots are counted by machines that are not connected to the internet.

“I think it is very important to state over and over again that the voting machines are not connected to the internet,” Scutchfield said. “They do not have modems within them. The internet has nothing to do with voting and Kentucky totals.” 

Representatives from ES&S and Harp Enterprises shared with lawmakers how their machines undergo rigorous testing to ensure they’re working properly. Sellers said that testing is open to the public.

The voting machines also have a variety of features to prevent tampering, the voting systems representatives said.

Ross Roberson, vice president of sales for Harp Enterprises Inc., said there is no way for its machines to be connected to the internet. The machines are also designed to detect anything foreign that is hooked up to the machine. 

“There’s hash files on the machine. It’s looking for matching hash files, and if these do not match, it will shut itself down,” Roberson said. “It shuts itself down purposely to make sure nothing has tampered with the equipment. No malware or any of that can be placed on the machine.”

Tucker Omel, ES&S senior sales engineer, testified ES&S has similar safeguards on its machines that cause them to automatically shut down at any detection of tampering.

Sen. Adrienne Southworth, R-Lawrenceburg, shared some of her thoughts on election security, including the idea of returning to counting paper ballots by hand.

During her presentation, Scrutchfield said hand-counting ballots increases the risk of fraud and causes significant delays in election results, which is why the state constitution was changed in the 1940s to allow ballots to be counted by machine.

House Minority Caucus Chair Derrick Graham, D-Frankfort, summed up his thoughts on Tuesday’s presentations.

“What I have seen today is that our election process, as I said earlier, are secure and safe,” he said.

Thayer said he agrees with Graham. He also asked and confirmed there is not any evidence any of Kentucky’s machines have been tampered with.

“I feel pretty good about the state of our elections here, and spreading disinformation about the electoral process is not good for our republic. It depresses voter turnout,” Thayer said.

The next Interim Joint Committee on State Government will take place at the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville at 11 a.m. on Aug. 25.

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