Voting Rights Updates and Actions!
It's been an energetic last few weeks re-igniting the KFTC Voting Rights campaign to restore voting rights to people with felonies in their past.
- On Monday night, we had a webinar with 45 registered participants. We reviewed the history and moment we're in for this issue, talked about paths forward, and heard personal stories from 6 people who have lost the right to vote and are fighting to get it back. You can watch the video here or just see the slideshow here.
- We created a powerful short video including interviews from 5 people with felonies in their past, telling their stories.
- We recruited 6 new plaintiffs to a lawsuit arguing that the current felony disenfranchisement process is unconstitutionally arbitrary.
- HR1 had a national hearing this Monday. Thats'a bill that, among other things, would restore voting rights to all people who have served their time for purposes of voting in federal elections.
- In the Kentucky legislature, we worked with Representative George Brown and Representative Charles Booker to re-write a version of a voting rights bill that is as "clean" and simple as possible, restoring voting rights to everyone when they're served their debt to society. Supporting this bill is likely to be our primary path to victory over the next few years.
- We completed a survey to all candidates for Governor asking them their position on this issue, wo we can let people know leading up to the May primary election.
But there's far more to come as the Legislative Session gets underway in frankfort next week. Please consider coming out to some of the below events or taking action from home to advance this issue.
Upcoming Events
KFTC Lobby Day - 2/5 - Broader than just Voting Rights, this is a day of action at the capitol around democracy and related issues.
Voting Rights Lobby Day 2/19 - This is our focused lobby day on voting rights where we'll be working through all 138 legislators and trying to build support and identify who's with us and who still needs convincing in the legislature. We hope you can come. There's also a Facebook event you can circulate.
Voting Rights Rally 3/13 - 2pm Capitol Rotunda - Right now, this is just a "Save the date" placeholder space, but look for more information soon.
Regular Lobbying in Frankfort or back home - Throughout February and early March, we'll be bringing people to Frankfort from different chapter areas to talk to their legislators about this issue. We'll also have meetings with them back home. If you're interested in this, please reach out to your local chapter organizer.
Actions You Can Take Today
Voting Rights Facebook Page - Please join and invite all your friends.
Voting Rights Petition - You can print this out and circulate it.
Legislative Message Line - Call 1-800-372-7181 and leave a message for your legislators letting them know you support restoring voting rights to people with felonies in their past.
Finding Allies - We're slowly helping to pull together a coalition of ally organizations who work to restore voting rights to people with felonies in their past. Are you a member of a group who might like to get involved? Please reach out to Dave Newton at 859-420-8919 or [email protected]
If we all do what we can, we can win this.
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