(LEX 18)– With the May primary right around the corner, there’s growing tension surrounding the election process itself.
Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging a recently enacted law that strips her of her power over the State Board of Elections. She spoke with LEX 18 about the lawsuit and she said she is sounding the alarm about the new election law.
She called the new state law, which removes her as chairman and voting member of the board “reckless” and “sloppy,” and she warns that “chaos and confusion” will surround the state’s primary election unless the law is invalidated.
“This is not the time for us to be testing some novel, new concept for election administration here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” she said.
The law also limits the Secretary of State’s access to a database of registered voters, the measure passed after two employees at the State Board of Elections claimed Grimes had amassed unprecedented power over the board, and targeted political rivals in the VOTA Database.
Grimes denies these allegations and maintains that she followed the law at all times.
“Exercising oversight does not constitute overreach. Oversight is what the chief elections official is supposed to do to ensure that our elections are fair and honest, and there’s integrity in our process,” said Grimes.
Some Republicans who led the push for the new law are named as defendants in the lawsuit, including House Speaker David Osborne, who called it frivolous.
With the Secretary of State removed as a voting member, the board is now locked at an equal number of Democrats and Republicans as voting members, Grimes warns that’ll lead to inevitable gridlock.
