Via press release
The League of Women Voters of Kentucky (LWVKY) hosted League Day at the Kentucky Capitol on Tuesday, February 18, 2024 and released its latest report, providing new data on felony disenfranchisement in Kentucky. This important event brought together members and supporters to engage with legislators, learn about key bills in progress, and advocate for democracy through voting rights and open primaries.
The report, Restoring Voting Rights to Kentuckians with Felony Convictions: A Statistical Update, was released and distributed to all legislators. In addition, Neil Volz, Deputy Director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, spoke about his experience with restoring voting rights to millions of Floridians and his personal experience with a past felony conviction. After his visit here Volz said, “There’s hope that this can be done. We did it in Florida’ you could do it in Kentucky too.”
Highlights from the League’s latest report include:
- Kentucky remains one of only three states (Kentucky, Iowa, Virginia) that disenfranchises for life anyone who has been convicted of any felony.
- Kentucky ranks #4 worst nationally in the percent of citizens disenfranchised, worse than being #7 in 2023.
- An estimated 153,618 Kentuckians are denied the right to vote despite the governor’s Executive Order 2019-003.
- An estimated 194,861 Kentuckians regained the right to vote as a result of that Executive Order.
- 6,253 felony convictions have been expunged since adoption of HB 40 in 2016.
Since pardons are unpredictable with changing governors and expungements are difficult to obtain, the League concludes that amending the Kentucky Constitution is necessary to provide consistency and clarity in restoring voting rights to Kentuckians with convictions.
The League has advocated restoration of voting rights since its first report was issued in 2006. That and other reports can be found at lwvky.org/voting-rights-restoration-1. Believing that voting is a fundamental citizen right that must be guaranteed, the Kentucky League supports passage of a bill to amend the Kentucky Constitution and let voters decide whether to restore voting rights to those with convictions once sentencing has been completed.
Also under the theme of “Let Us Vote,” League members heard from Sarah Higginbothom about semi-open primaries which would allow registered “Independent” or “Other” voters to vote in Kentucky's primary elections.
Current law allows only those registered as “Democrat” or “Republican” to vote in the primaries. That law disenfranchises 338,722 Kentuckians (10% of registered voters) who are “Independent” or “Other” from participating in publicly-funded primary elections. There is currently no active legislation on primary reform, but League members are asking legislators for their feedback on Kentucky’s current closed primary system.
“I am a lifelong Independent and have voted for who I thought best on both sides of the aisle. I find it frustrating that in Kentucky, we have closed primaries that do not allow me as a taxpayer to vote. We, the taxpayers pay for the primaries – as such, I feel we deserve the opportunity to vote in them,” said Liza Holland, President, LWV of Lexington.
Restoring Voting Rights to Kentuckians with Felony Convictions: A Statistical Update February 2025 can be found here.
