Rev. Ron Barrow

"I’m politically active," says Rev. Ron Barrow of Lincoln County. "I read newspapers and pay a lot of attention to what’s going on nationally and locally and it’s frustrating not to be able to participate by voting.

"I know a lot of people who can vote, of course, and I guilt them into getting out and casting their ballots – because it’s the right thing to do and because I can’t. We had a pretty good voter turnout in Lincoln County this past year, which I’m kind’ve proud of.

"I grew up around here in Stanford.  National politics like getting us out of Iraq are important to me, but so are local politics in Lincoln County. Basic things like clean water and local services really matter to me. A friend of mine even ran for mayor a while back, but I couldn’t vote for him.”

Ron has an extensive stack of records documenting his attempts to navigate the restoration of voting rights process over the years.

"In 2003, I applied to get my voting rights back before the 2004 presidential election, but I didn’t get a response.  I called to follow-up time and time again, but I never got anywhere.”

“Finally, maybe two year’s later, I sent in another application. They sent it back to me, letting me know that they still had my first application and were working on it.  They never did cash any of the checks I sent in for the application fee.”

 Ron is about to send in another application to get his voting rights through the new, streamlined process Governor Beshear has put in place and is hopeful. “Still,” he says, "people shouldn’t have to go through all of this to get their rights back. I served my time and probation and that’s sentence enough."