Posted by: KFTC Staff on February 24, 2020
We’ve been pushing to restore voting rights of people with felonies in their past in Kentucky for 15 years. We’re closer now than ever, but some Senate Republicans are answering this call with voting rights legislation that doesn’t actually give anyone their right to vote back. It will come up for a vote in the Senate tomorrow (Tuesday, 2/25), so calls are needed urgently!
Posted by: K.A. Owens on February 21, 2020
Public access the the capitol and capitol annex is an issue during the legislative session.
Posted by: KFTC Staff on February 20, 2020
Many Kentuckians are simply a lost job, new baby, accident or illness away from qualifying for Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP),
Posted by: KFTC Staff on February 19, 2020
Kentuckians need our legislators to put education first. Instead, they prioritized their political wants above what our students really need with Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), which forces a firearm into every public school in the state.
Teachers across the commonwealth are paying for classroom supplies out of their own pockets or fundraising for the resources our students need to learn. Our kids and their teachers deserve funding for projects that nurture and educate, not for guns in schools.
Posted by: KFTC Staff on February 19, 2020
With information from the Campaign Legal Center's RestoreYourVote.org tool, KFTC has developed a decision tree to use in the field to help people determine if Governor Andy Beshear's Executive Order restoring voting rights to 140,000 Kentuckians applies to them. Here's a link to the PDF and an image of it is below.
Click the image to enlarge
Posted by: KFTC Staff on February 12, 2020
Solar panels were recently installed on KFTC’s main office in London. This was the final step in a series of energy upgrades that the building had been undergoing in the last several months, which puts the office building on track to be completely solar-powered.
Posted by: Joe Gallenstein on February 10, 2020
The Northern Kentucky chapter hosted their first Coffee For The Commonwealth in January, inviting legislators representing Kenton County to meet for coffee with constiutents in an informal setting
Posted by: KFTC Staff on February 6, 2020
Over 36 hours, we had three big voting rights events – a Voting Rights Lobby Day, a Criminal Justice Panel Discussion, and a Press Conference for HB 6.
Voting Rights Lobby Day
In all, we had 34 documented meetings with legislators, 8 lobby teams, and 28 grassroots lobbyists plus the Kentucky Council of Church's great Prayer Day of Action on Voting Rights and 60 UFCW workers there who talked to legislators about HB 6 as a part of their meetings.
Our members built up their confidence in speaking truth to power and we had frustrating and yet valuable conversations with foes and allied legislators alike.
We got a lot done today and we can build on it. Come join us in Frankfort to continue the work!
Posted by: KFTC Staff on January 23, 2020
KFTC members were in Frankfort and on the phones yesterday to fight Senate Bill 2, a photo voter ID law designed to make it harder for some Kentuckians to vote by creating new hurdles for them. It’s especially troubling for young, elderly, low income and people of color communities – people who are less likely to have or need a photo ID.
SB 2 is supposed to make it harder for people to impersonate someone else on election day. But even the bill's supporters at the hearing couldn't come up with even one example this century of any time anyone tried to do that in Kentucky.
To address this non-existent problem, they’re trying to pass a complicated 66-page bill that restructures a lot of our voting process and they’re trying to do it all in a hurry.
We ought to be making it easier for citizens to vote, though, not harder.
Posted by: KFTC Staff on January 13, 2020
Over 40 people from 22 organizations gathered yesterday in Frankfort to celebrate our recent victories around voting rights, come to a shared understanding of Beshear’s executive order, to plan our work in the General Assembly to pass a robust constitutional amendment, and to start to think about how we can work together to register the estimated 140,000 Kentuckians who just regained the right to vote.
Our legislative focus between now and April 15 will be on HB 6, Charles Booker’s bill to restore voting rights to all Kentuckians after they’ve served their time. This bill is still needed because it doesn’t have the same exclusions as Beshear’s Executive order and it would be permanent.
To make a difference in this campaign in just a few minutes, you can call the Legislative Message Line (800-372-7181) and leave a message for your senator and representative, plus House and Senate Leadership to say that you “support HB 6.”
