Kentucky should continue their enormous progress in expanding mail voting. By passing legislation to make no-excuse absentee voting permanent, Kentucky can give their citizens the opportunity to vote in whichever manner they find safest and most convenient. Kentucky can reduce costs and increase voter convenience by creating a permanent absentee voting list, where voters can sign up to automatically be sent an absentee ballot for each election without having to re-apply. States on average save $1 for every request they no longer need to process.

We highly recommend including provisions to allow for mail ballots to be dropped and off at polling locations, vote centers, and other locations deemed necessary by the clerk as a low-cost way to increase options for voters. More options like drive-through drop offs and curbside solutions are also available.

Accepting ballots with Election Day postmarks is a best practice to ensure that voters are given all options to vote their ballot in a timely manner. Emergency regulations allowed ballots with Election Day postmarks to be accepted 3 days after the election kept disaster away in 2020, as accepting Election Day postmarks is estimated in most jurisdictions to decrease ballot rejection rates by half. Kentucky should pass legislation to make those changes permanent.

Simplifying the return process for a ballot is just as important as simplifying the request process. Ensuring that voters do not need to make an extra trip to the post office is not only a voter-centric reform, but also a safety reform. While Kentucky’s governor signed an executive order to prepay postage for the 2020 elections, the state should make prepaid postage permanent for all future elections.

Ballot tracking software such as Ballot Scout or Ballot TRACE can be a very cost effective tool to improve Kentucky’s current ballot tracking and increase voter confidence by allowing voters to track their ballot much like an Amazon package. It also adds a layer of data for the elections office who can also track the ballots to make sure they have reached their destination. Furthermore, these tools can be used as another modality to contact voters if there is a signature mismatch or deficiency on their return envelope. An expanded notification system helps keep rejection rates low and increases voter confidence and participation.

With a drastic increase in mail ballots, Kentucky has a great opportunity to reach for the gold standard of post-election security by upgrading to risk limiting audits. Kentucky’s data infrastructure would be further improved by implementing automatic and same day voter registration. Both of these would ensure that any eligible resident who wants to cast a ballot in an election can, regardless of whether they have submitted their registration forms on time.

We all know that it is important to make sure that the ballots received are being filled out by the individuals they were sent to, and Kentucky’s existing signature verification procedures already do just that. From an election security standpoint, witness requirements are far less secure than signature verification anyway. We recommend the state maintain its 2020 policy of requiring only a signature, not a witness.

Voters should have sufficient time to correct any issues with their ballot In the event that a voter’s ballot is rejected. Kentucky's current cure deadline of election day leaves many voters behind. We recommend allowing voters to cure any issues for 5 days after the election.