Only 15% of schools in Kentucky have some sort of government class. The Secretary of State, Michael G. Adams, is trying to increase that percentage.
On September 30, Adams came to visit Highlands High School to spread the message about the importance of civic involvement in the state of Kentucky to the senior class. When a student turns into an adult, their freedom to vote and make a voice of their own is a huge deciding factor in how things are run in their state government. Adams believes that people should be careful what sources they use and research on before they vote.
Adams said, “I’ve got to explain to them certain voters, that’s getting harder and harder because there’s been a fragmentation of how people get their information and who they trust with the information.”
As secretary of state, Adams’ job is to keep track of the different records in KY, even past documents in the state’s history. Every business in Kentucky must register or report to him to get their business on track. He is the chief election official of Kentucky. Adams wanted to come to Highlands to spread the importance of voting to the leaving seniors.
“10-15% of my time is making decisions and the rest of the time is explaining what the decisions are to people in the capital, voters, and government,” Adams stated.
Some of Adams’ role as secretary includes record keeping meaning he keeps records from the past, present and future. He has other responsibilities in office such as decision making. He makes big decisions and once he makes them he has to be able to explain them to his fellow co-workers.
“The secretary of state has the role of record keeper- land records- records that date back to when Kentucky split from Virginia – Daniel Boone’s legislative records.”
Adams wants to preach to younger people the importance of voting and how you shouldn’t believe everything you see on social media. He is worried people won’t vote based on real, true facts but instead a bunch of random people on social media voicing their opinions.
“People can use no cost to reach millions of people to say information that is maybe true or not true.”
One of the challenges that Adams had to face was covid 19. Adams got elected as the Kentucky secretary of state and then 2 months later Covid-19 struck. This was a big challenge for Adams because the state was going through a crisis and he had to find out ways to help Kentucky get through this as a state and try to all stay together no matter what side they were on.
“2 months later the coronavirus hit and then suddenly I had to totally reinvent our election process basically overnight, and actually that was the easy part. The hard part was to reassure the voters to trust the process.”
Adams wants young people to know that it takes a lot of effort and hard work to be able to have things done and have them done right. Adams had to work with people from his opposing party once he was elected to office and it took a lot out of him to be able to see their point of view.
“ It was hard being the one republican with a democratic governor, being on the same pace, doing the same thing, helping Kentucky to fix a problem. I got a lot of backlash for it.”
Adams believes everyone should vote so that their voices are heard in the state/ national government. When people come together and vote it makes a big difference in how the state is run. Especially when people like who’s running it.
