You can trust the election process regardless of what you’ve heard…
And, County Clerk Sandy Jones is a superstar
Scott White
Managing Editor
Two years ago, my life would have been insane. We lawyers tend to specialize in discrete areas of the law. For me, my specializations included election law. I was up to my ears in election work from March to November. Kind of like being an E.R. Doctor.
It was working as the attorney for candidates and political parties that turned election cycles into a form of blood sport. I dealt with things as varied as a racketeering indictment alleging a complex vote-buying conspiracy to the eligibility of a 92-year-old woman to vote who had no clue she had been moved out of her precinct having lived in the same house for 75 of those years and always voting at the same location. And, it feels like nearly every issue or weird thing in between.
The security of elections, be it eligibility, counting or the role of the local election board, has always been highly scrutinized in real-time and disputes fought over to the death.
But, in the end, when the race was finally over and there was a winner and a loser, everyone moved on.
The race had not been “fixed,” no official was corrupt, dead people did not vote, all the disputes were sorted out by election officials and courts, and, in very rare cases, actual corruption and criminality were detected and prosecuted.
Let me give you a real example of what happened right here.
Among the many election jobs I had, one was setting up “election protection” units for candidates or parties around election day itself. I did this for several of Ben Chandler’s campaigns as well as others.
In 2010, Chandler won reelection to Congress when he beat Andy Barr by a whisker in the Sixth Congressional District, which was +7 Republican (meaning, a Republican had a seven-point advantage). I worked with Chandler’s campaign team to develop a system to make sure the election was run according to law. If we detected shenanigans, we acted and we knew what we were doing.
I had open lines set up with volunteer lawyers in every county clerk’s office to alert me. There were all or parts of 13 counties in the Sixth District, an irregular circle centered around Lexington, from Powell in the east to Anderson in the west to Lincoln in the south and Franklin in the north. For each of the teams of 15 lawyers (each county plus three in Fayette), we had given them a day-long training in Kentucky election laws.
We were ready to fight for every single vote if necessary – including fighting with the attorneys for Barr, which we did twice on election day and once during the recount. Chandler won by a razor-thin margin, 119,812 to 119,164 – a difference of 648 votes out of a total of 238,976 cast. Winning on election day and then fending off post-election attacks felt like living in an anxiety machine.
One of the big fights we had in 2010 involved a +15 Democrat precinct in Fayette County, which due to technical issues, the machines opened two hours late – – the critical time for people to vote on the way to work or on their way to school at the University of Kentucky. We felt we needed every one of those votes based on the polling done the week before by the campaign that showed a dead heat.
We followed the rules and the law in a unique situation. We filed a complaint with the local board requesting the precinct stay open an extra two hours. It said no, so we contacted the circuit judge on call with an appeal and he said no. We then called the Court of Appeals judge on call with another appeal and she said no. We then contacted the Supreme Court justice on call with the final appeal and he said no.
This was a big loss – in fact, we were proven right . . . the turnout in the precinct was 1,100 voters less than the prior three elections where turnout varied by only 20 voters. We figured the lost two hours cost us a minimum of 900 votes. As much as it hurt, we knew the fight was fair and according to the law. No one intentionally went in the tank for Barr, no one bribed anyone. Barr did not blame it on a lie of a false conspiracy that defeated him. Chandler did not blame the close vote on crooked judges.
The electoral system did its job.
In 2012, fighting the tide where most of the Sixth District was in the “Nobama Zone,” Barr won the rematch. We had similar election day unique issues come up – one we lost here in Woodford County and two we won in Fayette and Powell counties. Again, the system worked. It was all resolved as it should have been.
Chandler, as Barr had in 2010, congratulated the winner, thanked his supporters and moved on.
This is because Barr and Chandler, their supporters, the media, the election officials, the public . . . all knew the American electoral system could be trusted. It is the best system, better than anywhere else in the world. It has worked for nearly 250 years and will again on Nov. 4.
Even though Kentucky is “off the table” so far as the presidential election goes, it is very much not so here in Woodford County. We have a very competitive race between Democrat Chantel Bingham and Republican Dan Fister for the 56th Kentucky House District. We have contested city council races in Midway and Versailles, which could well see new faces serving on both. For our community . . . for us . . . this is a consequential election. And, given those consequences and the seriousness of the issues, problems and opportunities the winners will face, thank God we have a system we can trust.
Don’t believe any lie to the contrary.
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Anyone familiar with the mechanics of running a fair, legal and efficient election whose sole focus is making sure every vote is legal and every vote is counted, knows Woodford County Clerk Sandy Jones is a superstar in her field.
As someone who has worked with, probably, nearly 100 of the 120 county clerks in Kentucky, I know the respect Sandy enjoys from her peers, other Woodford County officials, the media and the Kentucky Board of Elections.
We are lucky to have her. And, she just told me about another thing she is doing to make sure folks are well informed.
It is no secret that the two constitutional amendments the legislature has put before the voters, particularly Amendment 2 dealing with public financing of private and parochial (religious) schools, are being strongly contested. We also know the legislature has used what seems the entire dictionary to write the long ballot questions.
What this means is unless you read the question prior to election day, you will be faced with two lengthy questions to be read just to know what you are voting on.
To make sure people know what they are voting on, Sandy will have a printed copy of the two questions for every voter to read before going into the ballot box. And, if a person wants more time to read it and think about it before voting, she is setting up a table where folks can sit down. She will have an election officer even ask the voters if they would like time to read the questions before voting.
Not only will this likely make the actual voting process more efficient so folks do not get baked up waiting on others to read the questions, but it allows voters to be able to read them before the clock starts on the time limit a person has to cast their ballot upon entering.
Thank you, Sandy!
And, thanks to the Woodford County Fiscal Court, the full text of the two amendments on the ballot will be printed in full in our Oct. 31 paper.