A Tale of Three Secretaries
In an upcoming episode of the Democracy Optimist radio show and podcast, I will speak with Trey Grayson, the former Secretary of State of Kentucky. Grayson is the second guest of the podcast to have held the SOS position in Kentucky; I spoke with the incumbent, Secretary Michael Adams, in February (listen here). I also spoke with Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in February (available here).
Grayson and Adams are Republicans. Benson is a Democrat. The U.S., in fact, is the only modern democracy in the world that chooses its election officials in partisan races. And the discourse surrounding election administration now seems more partisan than ever.
How can someone who is a member of a political party remain impartial when engaging in their official duties of administering an election? My conversations with all three secretaries show that they can take off their partisan hats to serve all voters.
It isn’t always easy. The chief election officials in many states often face challengers who claim—without reliable evidence—that our elections are fraudulent and insecure. These officials may also face intense partisan pressure that seeks to impede their duties. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, for example, protesters gathered outside of Benson’s home with her young child inside.
In recent decades, Kentucky’s secretaries of state have recognized the importance of nonpartisanship when governing elections. Secretary Grayson, after serving as Kentucky’s chief election official, joined President Obama’s bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration. Working in tandem with top Democrats, he helped to create and provide election administration recommendations after collecting feedback nationwide. In 2021, Secretary Adams championed bipartisan legislation that many wouldn’t expect from Kentucky, a reliably red state: the legislation contained both election security measures and expansions for the right to vote. Adams today still touts the state’s nonpartisan slant on voting rights, calling Kentucky “the only state that’s doing policy in a nonpartisan way.”
This nonpartisanship is not just a Kentuckian trait. Secretary Benson wrote in a 2023 op-ed about the importance of neutrality for election officials, declaring that secretaries of state are the “champions, and guardians, of the democratic process.” Benson’s actions reflect her words: as she testified to Congress recently, Michigan has worked to “support a safe and transparent election infrastructure, to establish partnerships with community leaders to engage every eligible voter, and to ensure the accuracy of the state’s voter registration database.”
The bipartisan approach from Secretaries Grayson and Adams isn’t the result of something in Kentucky’s water (or bourbon). There’s nothing special about Michigan that has caused Secretary Benson to act on behalf of all voters and a stronger democracy. Instead, all three officials have emphasized the importance of bipartisan dialogue and have intentionally worked across the political aisle. Michigan has moved forward in improving its voting process over the past few years, and while there certainly are steps that need to be taken in Kentucky—for instance, it still has restrictive rules on both voter registration and absentee balloting—the conduct of these three Secretaries of State offers evidence that open, bipartisan discussion around our elections can happen.