Statewide elections are little more than two months away in Kentucky, which will decide leadership from Frankfort for the next four years.

Much of the attention as gone to the gubernatorial race and the continuing contention between incumbent Republican Gov. Matt Bevin and Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear.

Other state offices are up for grabs as well, including the secretary of state. The race is wide open this year as incumbent Alison Lundergan Grimes is finishing her second consecutive term and is prohibited from running for a third.

The two candidates on the ballot offer very different backgrounds and experiences.

Democrat Heather French Henry is well known in Kentucky as a former Miss America and wife of former Lt. Gov. Steve Henry. She also served as the deputy commissioner and commissioner for the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs

The Republican candidate Michael Adams is an attorney with a national practice focusing on election law and a former member of the Kentucky Board of Elections.

One of the two will be responsible for leading an office with a wide range of duties and responsibilities including elections and business filings.

The office

According to Kentucky state statute the secretary of state is responsible for three offices: the office of business, the office of administration and the office of elections.

The business side of the office is responsible for registering a number of records from registering all businesses within the state, trademarks and service marks and maintains financing records.

The land office maintains records of land acquisitions, even those land patents issued when present-day Kentucky was still part of Virginia, according to the secretary of state’s website. It also has records of military warrants and land patents issued for those who served in the French and Indian War, Lord Dunmore’s War and the Revolutionary War.

The secretary of state also serves as Kentucky’s top election official. The office accepts all candidate filings for all statewide races as well as other offices where the district covers more than one county, such as judges, state senators and state representatives.

The office also certifies candidates and verifies the totals from the individual counties.

Controversy with the office

Earlier this year, a new state law removed the secretary of state’s authority over the board of elections. The secretary is now a non-voting board member.

The legislation followed allegations that current Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes used the voter registration system to research political rivals and other instances of misconduct including failing to comply with a federal consent decree for the state’s voter rolls.

Grimes, who is in her second term as secretary of state, is challenging the law with a civil lawsuit. Grimes is not running for re-election.

On Thursday, Grimes’ father Jerry Lundergan and another man were convicted of improperly funneling corporate contributions to her 2014 U.S. Senate campaign.

Heather French Henry

Henry, who grew up in Maysville and Augusta, said she already feels familiar with the office from her time with the Department of Veterans Affairs, when the offices worked together from time to time.

“(The secretary of state office) is undergoing a fundamental change,” Henry said earlier this week in Winchester.

She said she supported the county clerk’s having a larger voice in the election board, which was part of the law passed earlier this year.

“They are the boots on the ground,” she said. “If they have cause for concern, we should have cause for concern.”

She said she sees the duties of the office as largely administrative, something she is used to doing with the KDVA.

“People who really know me understand my work ethic (and) know how much I love administrative work,” she said. “I spent 75 percent of my time (at KDVA) behind the desk.”

Henry said her goals include making sure the election process is secure and stable. There have been a number of changes in processes and equipment in recent years from paper ballots to electronic and now back to paper again.

Changes need to be enacted with a long-range view, she said.

“Those (voting) machines are not cheap,” she said. “Everything you talk about adding or changing as a cost and someone is going to bear that cost.”

Henry believes government can return to a point where it works for the public.

“If you want to see the difference, you have to be the difference,” she said. “I’ve seen what government can do when it works well. I believe it is possible to make government work no matter how many sides to the aisle there are.”

Michael Adams

Adams, a Paducah native and an attorney, said he’s been around politics most of his life but hadn’t thought about running until recently.

“I’ve been working on elections since before I could vote,” he said. “I’ve always loved politics. I volunteered for candidates. I stuffed envelopes.”

That interest, along with his experience as an attorney, led to other opportunities to assist with campaigns. Eventually, he was able to form a law firm specializing in election law which, he said, has helped candidates in all 50 states.

Three years ago, Adams was appointed to the Kentucky Board of Elections, which changed his perspective.

“I saw things I thought were inappropriate and raised those issues,” he said.

He said he believed the only way to resolve the issues was to resign from the board and run for secretary of state himself.

“You have a long string of things capped off by a federal trial in Lexington where our elections were tainted by money,” he said. “It’s what contributed to low (voter) turnout and a lack of trust.”

Adams said his primary goal is restoring integrity to the office and the election process in Kentucky.

“My biggest issue is requiring a photo ID to vote in Kentucky,” he said. “(If voting officials ask now), they can refuse. It’s a big loophole here in Kentucky. My opponent’s against it.”

Adams said the business records and land grant functions are largely administrative, while overseeing the elections is the main function of the office.

“The primary role of this office is ensuring fair elections,” he said.

Adams said one of his main tasks will be cleaning up the state’s voter rolls, as mandated by the federal government.

“There are estimated hundreds of thousands of people who don’t live here on our rolls,” he said. “I’m afraid Ms. Henry will not clean up the rolls. We have been under a federal court order to do that for over a year.”