WKYT Investigates | How secure are Kentucky’s elections?

KENTUCKY (WKYT) – Election day is about three weeks away, and millions of Americans will vote for their next president and even make choices about who will lead their local communities.

In our 2024 Campaign Topics and Issues Survey, one of Kentucky voters’ top concerns was election integrity.

We caught up with Secretary of State Michael Adams and asked him point blank: Have we in Kentucky ever had a breach of our system or compromised voter integrity?

“No, we’ve never had a breach of any of our systems, and I won’t sugarcoat it; other states have had breaches, but we have not,” Secretary Adams said. “We have a very hardened infrastructure. There has been no breach of our voter registration.”

Adams says he is somewhat concerned with artificial intelligence and its power to spread misinformation, but in the Bluegrass, people can cast a ballot with confidence.

“This is very important; there is no way to breach the voting because the voting isn’t done through the internet,” Adams said. “There’s no way they can log on or hack in and get in to a piece of paper and pen. You can’t do it. All of these ballot scanners we use at the polls don’t connect to the internet. They don’t have modems. They don’t have any way to be hacked.

Over the summer, the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office says they experienced a ransomware attack that shut down several offices for a few days.

The incident is still under investigation, but Adams believes they have additional measures in place to provide peace of mind.

“We have other controls too, such as we’re going to do an audit after the election to make sure the machine count matches the hand count.,” said Adams.

While the last presidential election cycle was heavily scrutinized, Secretary Adams was assured of the outcome.

“Even the states that were breached in 2016 by foreign rogue nations, nothing got changed,” said Adams. “The votes were not accessed. Registration records were accessed, but they weren’t changed. That was foreign nations showing off their ability to get in, but they didn’t actually impact the election.

You might also notice an increased presence of law enforcement at your precinct. That is to protect both the voter and the poll workers.

Copyright 2024 WKYT. All rights reserved.