Voting Rights News

Yesterday's Virtual Lobby Day for a Healthy Democracy was a big success, despite so many weather-related challenges. We had over 70 participants, had some good legislative meetings, a lobby training, social media training, letter to the editor training, spokesperson training, generated tons of calls to the legislative message line and good outreach through social media, and had a fantastic virtual rally with powerful stories in the afternoon.

More than 178,390 Kentuckians who completed sentences for nonviolent felony convictions have regained their voting rights since Gov.

2020 launched the Kentucky Democracy Project, a new campaign to register, educate and mobilize Kentucky voters to participate in the 2020 election and beyond. As Kentuckians, we can work together to build a healthy democracy where everyone has a voice and a vote. Our focus is on communities often left out of the political decision-making process – lower income communities, people of color, and young people – particularly 170,000 Kentuckians with felonies in their past who got back their right to vote.

This November KFTC spoke with three of those 170,000 to discuss what voting means to them and what it's going to take to restore and respect the voting rights of all Kentuckians. Links to the full audio interviews are listed at the bottom. 

Aubrey Clemons has always valued voting. But Clemons lost his right to vote after a felony conviction in 2006. He got his right to vote back through Gov. Andy Beshear's executive order. He lives in the Smoketown community of Louisville and is a KFTC member.

Q: What is your history with voting and what does voting mean to you?

Aubrey Clemons: Voting on a personal level is really special to me because as a young man, when I was 18 I never played into politics or policies. My up-comings and my community, the last thing we thought is that our voice mattered. It was typical to hear a brother of 18, 19, 20 years old say, I’m not voting, it doesn’t mean anything. 

I didn’t start hearing the conversation about voting until maybe 2004? The only reason why I voted is because my son’s mother was really big on voting. She made it a date. She’d get all dressed up and took me/us to the polls. 

Unfortunately in 2006 I got into some mess in Hart County, Kentucky. I never knew that boot-legging DVDs and CDs to be sold was bad, but I lost my right to vote because of it and became a felon. 

Voting was a part of our tradition as a couple, that we could have started but never got the chance to. Right after I was able to vote, right after I learned the power of my voice, I lost my right to vote. So that tradition got stomped. Even when I was in that place, serving my time in the state of Kentucky, she would always call me and let me know that she voted, that it was voting time. She had my kids out there excited to vote for Obama, twice! It’s really a big deal to me.

We had a big phone bank over the weekend and called 3,200 people with felonies in their past who are registered to vote to let them know they can go vote today or tomorrow. We had 59 callers, so we went on to call another 8,000 voters, mostly Black Kentuckians and help them to vote as well.

Kudos to all the volunteers who came out and to the organizations that co-sponsored the phone bank - Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, Hood to the Holler, ACLU, Together Frankfort, KUUJAN, Indivisible Danville, Youth Violence Prevention Research Center, and the Kentucky Poor People's Campaign.