Voter Empowerment
Poll: Kentuckians support restoring felon voting rights
Bluegrass Poll | Kentucky supports restoring felon voting rights
A majority of Kentucky voters say they favor amending the state constitution to allow convicted felons to regain their right to vote once they serve their full sentences.
A poll of 616 registered voters taken Feb. 19-21 by SurveyUSA for The Courier-Journal found that 51 percent favored such an amendment, while 38 percent opposed it. The poll question had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Many Kentuckians appear to share the view of Thomas Vance, 62, a disabled retired Air Force master sergeant who lives in Alexandria. In a follow-up interview, Vance said denying felons the vote after they serve their sentence is “piling on.”
“It is just not fair,” he said. “If I did my time, that should be the end of it.”
Charging ahead on Voting Rights in the Senate
Yesterday, our Voting Rights bill (HB 70) made it through the House to the Senate.
Today, twenty KFTC members and allies were there in Frankfort to talk lobby senators, thank represenatives, and make our voices heard.
It was a productive lobby day in which we met with 22 legislators, left personal notes and information for many dozens more, scheduled meetings with 13 more for days to come, and were generally a visible prescence in Frankfort.
Voting Rights passes House, 75 -25. On to the Senate!
House Bill 70, our bill to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society, has just passed a vote on the House floor 75 to 25.
Please thank your representative if they voted yes (see how they voted).
That's an overwhelming majority, but some of the new legislators just elected last year tended to vote no, perhaps proving that this is an educational issue and it takes a while to get through to people about it.
Representative David Floyd (R) spoke on the House floor in favor of voting rights, asking "Are felons forever comdemned or can they be restored? ... I think if you've served your debt to society, you've served your debt to society. I want the people of Kentucky to vote on this and that's what HB 70 does."
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:
CKY members meet with the new city council members about voting rights
This January the Lexington city council welcomed four new members; Shevawn Akers (district 2), Jennifer Scutchfield (district 7), Jennifer Mossotti (district 9) and Harry Clarke (district 10). Central Kentucky KFTC members have been very busy over the last couple of weeks meeting with the new city council members about voting rights.
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