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Kentucky's election fraud hotline is an important tool for investigating voter statements

tabnews August 18, 2024
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Thanks to a tip to the Attorney General's Election Fraud Hotline, an important tool the state uses to ensure clean elections, investigators were able to solve a case of vote buying in 2022 in Monroe County, Kentucky.

“One of the candidates running for prison warden down there called the hotline, our lawyers got the call, and that's how it all started,” Rich Ferretti, chief of the Attorney General's Criminal Investigation Division, said in an interview in July. “We followed through.”

Possible cases of voter fraud or corruption at the ballot box can be reported by calling the hotline at 1-800-328-VOTE (8683) or through a portal on the Attorney General's website.

The hotline is available for calls all year round and offers the option to leave voice messages 24 hours a day, every day.

During early voting and on Election Day, calls will be answered live, with staff on the phone from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. EDT. This year, early voting will take place between October 31 and November 2, with Election Day set for November 5.

The hotline and online portal receive complaints and concerns on everything from potentially fraudulent mail-in ballots and vote buying to procedural issues. It is a “Swiss Army knife” that deals with all kinds of fraud, Attorney General Russell Coleman told reporters in May.

The Attorney General's Office typically provides updates on complaints received through the hotline and portal. For the 2024 primary election, the office handled 36 reports before Election Day, 44 on Election Day, and 18 after polls closed.

“This is as transparent a process as we can afford while protecting the integrity of these investigations,” Coleman said earlier this summer in a press conference at his office's Election Integrity Command Center in Frankfort. “When the polls close and the winners are announced, I hope every Kentucky citizen can be confident that our election is secure and that our constitutional order worked.”

Complaints are investigated by prosecutors at the Attorney General's Office, and allegations of electoral fraud are referred to the local criminal police, which Ferretti describes as “a sort of law enforcement department of the Attorney General's Office.”

The department employs about 40 detectives who investigate crimes that other law enforcement agencies may not be trained to investigate, including public corruption and election fraud. DCI is “an acronym that's important,” Coleman said, and is based on employees who worked at other law enforcement agencies before their careers.

These investigators follow leads and conduct investigations, collect documents and conduct interviews to determine whether the allegations are credible. Two years ago, their investigation into vote-buying allegations in Monroe County began with witness interviews and subpoenas and ended with seven convictions.

Collaboration is key, Coleman said. Throughout the investigation, the team remains in contact with the Secretary of State's office and the Kentucky Board of Elections, as well as county officials across the state.

“We allow silos to be a limiting factor in government, as you know. That's certainly the case in law enforcement,” Coleman said in May, days before the 2024 primaries. “That's not the case today. Everyone in government is pulling together to protect the integrity of the election.”

Reach Lucas Aulbach at [email protected].

How to file an election complaint

Phone: 1-800-328-8683

On-line: bit.ly/4frs1eS

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