Airkings wrote:
I've recently noticed that our Kenmore dryer's heating element will come on
when the dial is turned to set the drying time, but before the "start"
button is pushed. In other words, If I set the timer to 40 minutes or
whatever and walked away without pushing start, the heating element would
continue to be on indefinitely.

The heating element coil is most likely touching the grounded metal
enclosure and running on 120 volts. It's a potentially dangerous
situation; replace the coil.