FRANKFORT (KT) ­— - Secretary of State Michael Adams has announced that in December, Kentucky’s electorate declined as more voters were taken off the rolls than were added.

While 671 new voters registered, another 3,089 voters were removed. Of them, 2,625 were deceased voters, 287 nonresident voters, 174 voters who voluntarily de-registered, and three others who had felony convictions. That meant 2,418 fewer voters on the rolls as of Dec. 31 than there were on Nov. 30, a 0.07 percent decrease.

“In this year with no elections, my focus is on improving our election system for 2022,” Adams said. “While the legislature considers major reforms I’ve proposed, we won’t lose sight of our ongoing mission to clean up the voter rolls we inherited one year ago.”

Some of the proposals Adams has said he hopes to have lawmakers adopt this year, following the success of the 2020 election changes he and Gov. Andy Beshear made by executive orders include: allowing early voting, but perhaps not as long a period as in 2020; vote centers in each county where residents can go, regardless of their precinct; keeping the online absentee ballot request portal; and maintaining the so-called “cure” process, where people who vote absentee have an opportunity to correct errors on their ballot. Extending election day voting by an hour is also a possibility.

Breaking down current registrations by party:

--Democratic registrants represent 47 percent of the electorate with 1,677,174 registered voters. Democratic registration dropped by 3,400 since November 30, a 0.20 percent decrease.

--Republican registrants total 1,577,561, or 44 percent of voters. Republicans saw a decrease of 1,051 registered voters, a decline of 0.07 percent from November 30.

--In addition, 9 percent of voters are listed under other affiliations, which saw an increase of 2,033 registrants, a 0.62 percent climb.     

Complete registration statistics are available on the State Board of Elections website.