LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Jefferson County Clerk's race is crowded with candidates hoping to unseat incumbent Barbara "Bobbie" Holsclaw.
Holsclaw, a Republican, has been elected six times and is campaigning for her seventh term.
"Everybody has a right to feel that they can do a better job and apparently, that's what they think," Holsclaw said. "I hope to beat them. No guarantee with that, but it is my hope that I'll get to continue on."
Holsclaw said she has work left to do on securing elections.
"I want to make sure that everything is safe and sound before I leave and we're working on that every single day," she said. "We had a great election in 2020 and, so far, everything's going great in 2022, but there are legislative changes and they'll probably be some more and I'd like to be at the helm of that to take care of everything."
Holsclaw said she also plans to install kiosks around the county to make it more convenient for people to get vehicle tags.
"It would be really nice if you were at the grocery store and you could just put your information in there," Holsclaw said. "I looked at it several years ago, but at that time, [the kiosks] did not have the ability to put the sticker on the on there, but this time they do. It would be a complete transaction."
Other candidates running on the Republican ticket include Bob DeVore and Mark Wooten.
DeVore said election integrity led him to run. One area he'd like to address if elected is how long paper ballots are kept on file.
"After 22 months, the ballots [can be destroyed]," DeVore said. "I want to see about getting a bill set up to where ballots are being archived so we will be able to utilize that as forensic analysis in the future. If we spot something in the past, we can fix it."
Wooten said election integrity is also a reason why he decided to challenge Holsclaw.
"When elected Jefferson County clerk, we are going to utilize artificial intelligence and we will have a governmental app from the government on your smartphone," Wooten said.
"You put in your email address, you scan your driver's license or your government-issued photo ID, snap a picture of yourself, send that in and you're ready to vote right from your smartphone. No long lines, no waiting for ballots to be counted," he said.
Several Democrats also vying to unseat Holsclaw
Four Democrats are running in the primary race for Jefferson County clerk. They include Neville Blakemore, Daniel A. Cobble, Tenisha Smith and Tina Ward-Pugh.
Blakemore said if elected, he plans to make voting more accessible.
I'm running because Trump Republicans are attacking the right to vote," Blakemore said. "As clerk, I want to make voting easier, more polling locations, free rides to the polls and [expand] early voting."
Cobble said he feels like he's the most relatable of all the candidates.
If elected, Cobble said he would advocate for permanent mail-in voting and try to make the polls more accessible for people with disabilities.
"I feel like when it comes to the issues, I will be the best candidate to listen to our citizens," Cobble said. "We don't need anyone with name recognition or anyone like that with the big bucks, we just need more ordinary people who have a vision for the future."
Ward-Pugh said she has a proven record of leadership and feels she could bring positive changes to the election process in the county.
"I want to recruit and train year-round a poll worker service corps of people," Ward-Pugh said. "I don't want to wait until the week out or use the excuse that I can't find poll workers and that's why we're consolidating polling locations. I want to go beat the streets and find those poll workers because I know they're out there."
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