A proposal to move elections for governor and other statewide offices to presidential election years in 2032 eked out of the Kentucky Senate on Wednesday, keeping alive its chances to make the ballot this fall.
The constitutional amendment proposed and sponsored by Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Ryland Heights) passed the upper chamber by a vote of 26-9, giving it three more than the 23 votes the bill needed to advance to the House with three members not voting. At least 60 votes will be required for the proposal to clear the 100-member House.
If the amendment makes the November 2024 ballot and passes muster with voters, the last odd-numbered year election for the office of governor and lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, state auditor, and commissioner of agriculture would be in 2027, adding one year to what is now a four-year term for those offices. That would create a one-time five-year transitional term for statewide officers, including the governor.
The ballot measure would read: “Are you in favor of amending Section 95 of the state constitution to hold the election of all statewide constitutional officers in even-numbered years after the November 2027 election?”
“Voter fatigue” and cost savings of about $20 million to counties in odd-numbered years were both cited by senators supporting SB 10 on Wednesday as reasons to pass the measure. Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer (R-Georgetown) said the odd-numbered statewide elections generate low turnout.
“There’s voter fatigue having elections three out of every four years,” Thayer said. He targeted Gov. Andy Beshear’s 2023 campaign in his comments, saying Beshear’s latest campaign started “berating the Republican nominee for governor about five minutes after the primary took place and didn’t let up.”
Turnout in the last election was down six percent from 2019, according to the Kentucky Lantern. Thayer reminded the Senate that voter turnout is typically higher in presidential election years.
Not all members of the Senate Republican caucus agreed with Thayer’s comments. Sen. Adrienne Southworth (R-Lawrenceburg) rejected the notion of voter fatigue in a government “of, by, and for the people.”
“I really take a big issue with” the term voter fatigue, she said. “It’s not interrupting American citizens’ lives to have to go vote. This is after all a country created of, by, and for the people.” What voters are “fatigued about,” she said, are long ballots that are made longer by proposed constitutional amendments.
Southworth said she supports some constitutional amendments but is concerned “about adding a whole other page to an already really long ballot.”
Another one of the nine senators voting against SB 10 was Sen. Robin Webb (D-Grayson), one of only seven Democrats in the Republican-led Senate. Webb’s voice boomed as she talked about what she called a “citizen’s most important responsibility” referring to voting.
“Participation should be all the time,” Webb told the Senate.
Proposed constitutional amendments in Kentucky require three-fifths approval of members in each chamber to make the statewide ballot. No more than four legislative-referred amendments are permitted to go on the ballot in any one election cycle.
The House — with its 78 Republicans and 20 Democrats — has more than enough votes to pass SB 10 along party lines, although it’s uncertain how close the vote will be or if SB 10 will pass the chamber at all.
McDaniel released the following statement after Senate passage of SB 10 Wednesday: “I appreciate each of my Senate colleagues for quickly approving this measure and sending it to the House early in the session. I have confidence that the merits behind this constitutional amendment appeal to Kentucky voters who are burned out with politics flooding their televisions, mailboxes and roadways almost yearly. Participation in the democratic process is vital to the continuation of our constitutional republic, and I think Senate Bill 10 will go a long way in preventing voter apathy.”