From a hotline tip to convictions: How Kentucky investigates election fraud claims

Investigators broke open a 2022 vote-buying case in Kentucky's Monroe County through a tip filed with the attorney general's election fraud hotline, a key tool the state uses to keep elections clean.

"One of the candidates that was running for jailer down there, he called the hotline, our attorneys got it, and that's how it started," Rich Ferretti, commissioner of the attorney general's office's Department of Criminal Investigations, said in a July interview. "We ran with it."

Potential instances of voter fraud or corruption at the ballot box can be reported through a call to the hotline, 1-800-328-VOTE (8683), or through a portal on the attorney general's website.

The hotline is open for calls throughout the year, with callers able to leave voice messages at all hours every day.

During early voting and on Election Day, calls are answered live, with staffers answering the phone from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. EDT. This year, early voting will take place between Oct. 31-Nov 2, with Election Day set for Nov. 5.

The hotline and online portal take complaints or concerns about all kinds of issues, from potential fraudulent absentee ballots and vote-buying to procedural questions — it's a "Swiss Army knife" that handles all sorts of possible fraud, Attorney General Russell Coleman told reporters in May.

The attorney general's office generally provides updates on complaints it's fielded through the hotline and portal. In the 2024 primary, the office handled 36 reports before Election Day, with 44 on the day of the races and 18 after polls closed.

"This is as transparent a process as we can afford while still 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 Kentuckian can feel confident that our election is secure and that our constitutional order has worked."

Complaints are reviewed by prosecutors with the attorney general's office, and allegations of election fraud are sent to its Department of Criminal Investigations, described by Ferretti as "kind of the law enforcement wing of the attorney general's office."

The department is staffed with about 40 detectives who look into crimes other law enforcement agencies may not be trained to investigate, including public corruption and election violations. DCI is "an acronym that matters," Coleman said, built around staffers who have worked for other law enforcement departments before working their way up.

Those detectives follow tips and conduct investigations, gathering documents and interviews to determine if the allegations are credible. Two years ago, their investigation into claims of vote-buying in Monroe County started with witness interviews and subpoenaed communications and ended in seven convictions.

Collaboration is key, Coleman said. The team stays in contact with the secretary of state's office and Kentucky's Board of Elections, as well as county clerks around the commonwealth as it investigates.

"We allow, in government, silos to be a limiting factor, as you well know. Certainly, in law enforcement we do," Coleman said in May, days before the 2024 primary election. "That's not present today. You have everyone in government rowing together to protect the integrity of the ballot."

Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@courier-journal.com.

How to file an election complaint

Phone: 1-800-328-8683

Online: bit.ly/4frs1eS

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky election fraud hotline a key tool to investigate voter claims