A bipartisan bill that would pave the way for Kentucky to restore voting rights to some people who have served sentences for felony convictions passed out of a Senate committee Wednesday morning.
Kentucky voters would have the final say at the ballot box in November if the General Assembly approves Senate Bill 80, sponsored by Sens. Jimmy Higdon and Keturah Herron. It proposes a constitutional amendment to restore the right to vote after a felony conviction except when the felony involved treason, election bribery or fraud, a crime against a child or violent or sexual offenses. Higdon, a Lebanon Republican, had proposed legislation in 2020 that was similar to the current bill, but it did not make it through the legislature. He began working with Herron, a Louisville Democrat, on the issue around that time, before she was elected to the General Assembly.
“When a felon has served their time, served their probation period, this bill would automatically give them their voting rights back,” Higdon told the Senate State and Local Government Committee. He added that Kentucky is one of two states that do not automatically restore voting rights to convicted felons after they serve their sentences.
Higdon also said that SB 80 would remove a controversial section of the Kentucky Constitution that says “idiots and insane persons” cannot vote. The amended language says people “determined by a court of competent jurisdiction to be mentally incompetent and who have not retained their voting rights or had those rights restored” would be among those who cannot vote.
Both Higdon and Herron noted that some advocates say their proposal would not go far enough to restore voting rights to people who have served their sentences.
“One thing that Sen. Higdon taught me in 2020 is that we have to trust the process,” Herron said. “And this is a bill that I think we can get passed here out of the Senate and we will do what we need to do after it moves through the process.”
One group calling for a more inclusive restoration of voting rights is The Sentencing Project, which advocates for humane responses to crime to minimize imprisonment. Nicole Porter, the organization’s senior director of advocacy, urged lawmakers to expand restoration of voting rights to all convicted criminals who have completed their sentences. She said that in states without a full restoration of rights there is confusion among corrections and elections officials and newly eligible voters.
Jennifer Jackson, the president of the League of Women Voters of Kentucky, told the committee the group also wants a measure that would restore voting rights to all convicted felons, except for those with felony election offenses.
“This advocacy is rooted in our values,” Jackson said. “We believe that our government is stronger when it represents the voices of all Kentuckians, specifically through voting.”
Speakers, including Porter, during a League luncheon on Tuesday discussed restoring the right to vote to Kentuckians with felony convictions.
Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ryland Heights, asked Jackson if the League’s position would allow child rapists to have their voting rights restored. “It’s a yes or no. They would or they wouldn’t under your proposal. It’s simple” he said as Jackson began to explain. She answered yes.
McDaniel was the lone vote against the bill.
Marcus Jackson, the founder of Advocacy Based on Lived Experience of Kentucky, (ABLE-KY) urged lawmakers to amend SB 80 based on implementation concerns from a 2019 executive order by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. That order restored the right to vote to more than 140,000 Kentuckians who have completed sentences for nonviolent offenses. A Beshear spokesperson recently told the Lantern that number is now around 200,000 Kentuckians.
Jackson said there has been confusion among voters who have had their rights restored and local election officials who are unaware of the changes made by the executive order.
“What we’re asking you for is a clear and equal path for every Kentuckian to have a pathway back to restoration of voting rights, one that’s not going to create confusion” for “people who are just simply trying to have a life and get it together,” Jackson said.
SB 80 now goes to the Senate for a floor vote.