By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
FRANKFORT — Registered voters who haven’t cast a ballot in recent elections may be receiving a postcard from the Secretary of State’s office soon.
To ensure accurate records, Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes announced Friday that the State Board of Elections sent an address verification mailing to voters who may have moved. Postcards were mailed to the addresses on file for approximately 600,000 registered voters, people who have not voted in the past four years nor made any updates or changes to their voter registration during that period.
“Voters who receive the card are absolutely still eligible to vote,” said Grimes. “As long as I am Secretary of State and Kentucky’s chief election official, the state will never unilaterally remove voters from our registration lists. This mailing is an effort to satisfy requests of the federal government.”
Voters who receive the card can still vote. If the postcard contains their correct address, they do not need to do anything at all.
Any person who receives a card for a previous occupant of the residence should mark “Return to Sender” on the card and place it back in the mail.
If the State Board of Elections receives undeliverable cards from the mailing, another postcard will be mailed as required by law. If a voter does not respond to the second mailing, a waiting period of two federal elections begins to see if the voter casts a ballot or updates their information during that time.
“We will absolutely not remove any voter without due process. I will fight any effort to suppress the vote in Kentucky by unilateral purging of the voter rolls,” Grimes said.