Voting Rights Meeting and Action!

 This weekend, we had a powerful statewide meeting in Louisville with allies to plan our campaign to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.

We had forty participants from a wide range of groups including Jobs with Justice, NAACP, the Kentucky Council of Churches, Stepping to a New Beat, and the UAW along with a lot of KFTCmembers.  Many of the participants were former felons themselves. 

We used a lot of the time to let people in the room have a chance to connect, root themselves in why they think restoring voting rights is important, and review the history of ourcampaign and the current landscape. 

But after that, we focused a lot on actions to restore voting rights to former felons and we're sharing those out to the broader public here:

1. Call the Legislative Message Line
Can you take 2 minutes to call the Legislative Message Line?  Call 1-800-372-7181 (7am-11pm) and ask to leave a message for “Senate Leadership” and "Senate State and Local Government Committee members.”  Leave the message "Please vote Yes on HB 70 to restore voting rights.”  
Other key people to leave messages for on later calls include your own senator and representative, "House State and Local Government Committee," "House Leadership," or even "All Louisville Legislators" (or legislators from the city you live in).

2. Using  Facebook
Several of the participants at Saturday's meeting suggested social media as a key tool to use.  Here are two key things to share far and wide on Facebook.
Voting Rights Lobby Day and Rally - http://www.facebook.com/events/150892851731675/
Voting Rights Page - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Voting-Rights-for-Former-Felons-Kentucky/196962267070319
Can you share these things on your facebook profile and invite a lot of friends to them?  You can also help by starting conversations on the walls of these pages.  

3.  Voting Rights Lobby Day and Rally - March 6th - Who can make it and spread the word?
We have our big Voting Rights Rally and Lobby Day on March 6th in Frankfort from 8:30am to 2pm. 8:30am-11am small group lobby trainings in Capitol Annex room 111. 1pm-2pm Rally in the rotunda. 2:15pm-2:35pm - debrief in capitol annex room 129.  Some people will just be able to make it to the rally but we hope others will be able to stay all day and talk to legislators.  We can use some help in spreading the word, recruiting lobby team captains, and former felons to tell their stories at the rally.  Here's the calendar entry - http://kftc.org/events/voting-rights-lobby-day-and-rally

4. Write a letter to the editor
To the Courier Journal or other newspaper about this issue. 

5. Tell your story!  
Stories from former felons are powerful and we try to conduct regular interviews and publish them with pictures to help legislators and the public at large understand this issue better by understanding former felons as people they can relate to.  Would YOU like to tell your story in an interview or otherwise?  If so, let me know.  Dave Newton 859-420-8919 [email protected]  

6.  Visit a church, ally group, or other organization to talk about this or invite them to get involved.  

7.  Come out to Frankfort to lobby legislators with us on other days.  KFTC members are in Frankfort talking to legislators almost every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  If you're available to come with us, let us know.   Feb 6th, Feb 12th, and Feb 21st are each especially important days, in addition to the big day on March 6th.  

Voting Rights Calendar
Feb 5th - March 11th – main part of the Legislative Session
Feb 6th - First big day of citizen lobbying in Frankfort and Black History Day at the Capitol.  
Feb 12th - 8am – Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee Meeting in Capitol Annex room 171.  Likely date of the HB 70 hearing.
Feb 21st - Focus Voting Rights Lobby Day (smaller) 9am-2pm in the capitol.  Rolling lobby trainings in room 125 from 8:30am to 9:45am.  Debrief from 2pm to 3pm in room 129.  Info table reserved - 8:30am to 3pm.
March 6th - Voting Rights Rally and Lobby Day. 8:30am to 2pm. 8:30am-11am small group lobby trainings in Capitol Annex room 111. 1pm-2pm Rally in the rotunda. 2:15pm-2:35pm - debrief in capitol annex room 129.
March 11th - Last day of concurrence (last regular day before they adjourn for a while)
March 26th - Sine Die (end of Legislative Session)