Editorial on Restoration, Herald-Leader

Editorial Note from Yesterday's Herald-Leader in support of Restoration of Voting Rights for Former Felons

FELONS' VOTING RIGHTS LEFT TO GOVERNOR

House Bill 70, which proposed a constitutional amendment to restore ex-felons' voting rights and other civic privileges, is dead for this session.

Weighed down by a lot of amendments denying rights to one group of ex-cons or another, it never received a House vote.

The one good news is that Gov. Steve Beshear, with the support of Secretary of State Trey Grayson, said they will remove all the extra hurdles Gov. Ernie Fletcher imposed: essays, fees, OKs from prosecutors.

This bipartisan stand gives hope that one day Kentucky will join nearly every other state in restoring rights automatically when the debt to society is paid. Only Kentucky and Virginia do not.

Nearly 129,000 adults are still barred from voting in Kentucky. Among African-Americans, nearly one in four is disenfranchised.

That's a lot of people getting the message that they are unworthy of a chance to be citizens. And with Kentucky having the fastest-growing prison population in the nation, such prohibitions only feed despair.

 

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth is disappointed in the lack of action around Restoration of Voting Rights from the state legislature, which we see as largely due to a constitutional amendment log-jam.  Only a very small number of constitutional amendments can be passed in a given year and the Governor pushed legislators hard to delay passing any to give his Gambling proposal a better chance of passing.

Still, we collectively succeeded in a great lobbying campaign almost every day of the 60-day legislative session including a 400-person focus lobby day at the end of February.

KFTC members are already planning at-home events between now and next year's legislative session to do broad public education and build support for restoration across the Commonwealth.