Chapter: Central Kentucky

Reposted from yesterday's Herald-Leader - an op-ed by Herbert Reid and Richard Knittel - who are (amongstother things) KFTC members from Lexington and Versailles, respectively. 

One valuable scholarly study of the right to vote states "despite its pioneering role in promoting democratic values, the United States was one of the last countries in the developed world to attain universal suffrage."

The same study reminds us that it was the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. that brought "the abolition of almost all remaining restrictions on the right to vote."

On Monday, American citizens will see another anniversary of the unfortunate 2010 Supreme Court decision (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission) bringing an unprecedented flood of money into our electoral process.

This year, the anniversary coincides with the national day honoring the civil rights movement's greatest leader.

This morning at 6:15 a.m., I got a call from Teddi Smith Robillard, 73, of Lexington telling me that she had just voted. 

Teddi is a former felon who has been fighting since Spring of last year to get her right to vote back in Kentucky and this is the first time she's been able to vote since the early 80s.

"It's been very weird," Teddi said, thinking back.  "For so much of my life, I've helped people to register to vote - hundreds of people - but I haven't been able to vote myself.  It always felt strange to me, but I still did it because of how important voting is.