Until recently most of us outside of state government didn’t know much about the role of Secretary of State, the state’s top election official. We simply didn’t think about it. But since 2020, election laws and procedures have been in the spotlight – and election officials have come under attack. 

In this episode of Let’s Find Common Ground, we meet Democrat Steve Hobbs, Secretary of State for Washington, and Republican Michael Adams, Secretary of State for Kentucky. 

Kentucky is a vote-in-person state, while Washington has voting by mail and at the dropbox. But no matter how people vote, suspicion of the entire process is rife. In recent years both men have encountered election deniers and faced threats to themselves and their staff.

“These abuses, even if they’re not full-fledged threats of violence - it adds up,” says Michael Adams, “and it begins to really lay some strain on our election process.

Hear what each of our guests is doing to protect democracy in his state, why being part of the Electronic Registration Information System (ERIC) is important to them, and how volunteers play a vital role in free and fair elections.