Dear Edmonson Voice Editor,

Information was released on Friday, February 3, 2023, that GoodRx Holdings, developer of the well-known GoodRx prescription drug discount app, has been accused by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of wrongfully sharing data on millions of users’ prescription medications and illnesses to multiple companies, including Google and Facebook. According to the FTC, this “sharing” went on for years and was done primarily so GoodRx could market to and make even more money from users of their app. GoodRx has reportedly agreed to settle these allegations by paying a substantial amount of money.

For many, many years we have all received “discount” cards in the mail and seen stacked up at medical offices and other places. Consumer Reports has stated multiple times that “discount” cards are a major source of identity theft in this country, which is very accurate. All those companies printing those multitudes of “free” cards and newer companies like GoodRx with extremely expensive commercials are all in the business of making money…loads of money. Many of them make profits in various ways and one very serious way is by selling or using people’s data and personal information. In my opinion, this is very unethical and immoral because most people have no idea this is being done and are just seeking help with their prescription costs. As the old sayings go, “If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is” and “Nothing in life is free” (even though I would add except God’s Grace, though it too was paid by One).

At Alford’s Pharmacy, this is precisely the reason we do not participate in this stealing of our friends, family, and neighbors’ data and information. Rest assured, if you call our pharmacy your home then you have nothing to worry about with this regard, and I am very proud to say that. Unfortunately, over the years there have been some to not believe or trust us when we told them of the great risk they had by using “discount” cards and apps at other pharmacies. We will never put Profits before our Character.

We have many tools at our disposal to save people money on their much-needed prescriptions and invite anyone to reach out to us to discuss those available to them in their particular circumstance. At Alford’s Pharmacy, our Mission is Serving Others With Humility and we take that extremely serious. We will always strive to do that while Honoring God, Honoring People, and Honoring Our Communities.

Eternally grateful for the opportunity to serve and love our neighbor as ourselves,

Kasey Alford, Pharm.D., CEO
Alford’s Pharmacy

by Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams:
Voters will head to the polls in less than 4 months to vote in the 2023 primary election for governor, secretary of state, and other constitutional offices. As my team has prepared, we have looked to lessons learned from the November 2022 elections.

First and foremost, the midterms showed that early voting works. At my urging, in 2021 the General Assembly acted in bipartisan fashion to enact it, and over a quarter million Kentuckians took advantage of it in the general election. The turnout correlated with the partisan affiliation of our voters – Republicans with a little less than 50%, then Democrats close behind, followed by Independents. Early voting doesn’t favor a side; it just helps voters. It doesn’t just help voters who vote early. It also helps the voters who don’t. While some counties saw long lines on election day, they would have been even longer if voters had not already had three days to vote.

The solution to long lines on election day is not to add more voting days: More than four times as many voters voted on Tuesday, November 8th, as voted in the 3 early voting days combined. In order to reduce lines, we need more voting locations, not more voting days.

There are a few ways to accomplish this. One would be to do what was done in 2020, via emergency powers granted by the Legislature: granting counties the flexibility to consolidate voting locations, but only with approval of the governor and secretary of state. It’s important that someone who is accountable to voters be able to review and approve a local election plan that reduces voting locations.

An alternative approach to fixing this problem would be to develop a statutory formula to set a floor for how many voting locations a county needs. Finally, election funding allocated to counties should be aligned not with how many precincts they have on paper, but how many polls they actually open.

Another way to improve the voter experience is by closing the loophole that allows electioneering at the polls during early voting. Current law only prohibits electioneering at the polls on the six days of excused in-person absentee voting, and on election day, but not on the three days of no-excuse early voting.

We can improve the recount process by closing a loophole that allows candidates to request recounts even when they lose by a landslide. In 2021, lawmakers worked in a bipartisan fashion to only allow recanvasses if the requesting candidate lost by one percent. The same threshold should apply to recounts, which are far more taxing on our election officials. We have a separate law that permits an election challenge upon an allegation of fraud, corruption, or even an administrative error, and any person with evidence will not lost the right to contest an election; but, the frivolous lawsuits by people who lack evidence of fraud, corruption, or administrative error, and lose by a wide margin, must be stopped – this harassment is contributing to attrition among county clerks, and we need experienced professionals in these offices.

Although none of these changes is major, they are all important to ensuring our next election runs as smoothly as possible.