• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. felons' voting rights>

More than 100,000 Kentucky felons will get back the vote this year

Our Staff
December 11, 2019
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear

Kentucky's new governor, Andy Beshear, said Tuesday he plans to reinstate voting rights for felons, following through on a campaign promise.

John Sommers II/Getty Images

Kentucky's new governor plans to sign an executive order Thursday restoring the vote to more than 100,000 convicted non-violent felons who have completed their sentences.

Andy Beshear, a Democrat and former state attorney general, made the announcement Tuesday in his inaugural address. It's the fulfillment of a promise that shaped the closing days of his campaign last fall, when he won an upset against Republican incumbent Matt Bevin.

"My faith teaches me to treat others with dignity and respect. My faith also teaches forgiveness," Beshear said, and so he will use his executive power to restore "voting rights to over 100,000 men and women who have done wrong in the past but are doing right now. They deserve to participate in our great democracy."


The new governor's move will be the largest restoration of voting rights for felons since Florida voters approved a measure last year granting the franchise to as many as 1.4 million who have finished prison, probation and parole. But a law enacted by the Legislature to place restrictions on felons' voting has tied up many of their new rights in state and federal courts.

Only Kentucky and Iowa permanently disenfranchise all felons unless the governor grants a reprieve — something that Bevin did in about 1,200 cases during his single term.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

"By taking this step, by restoring these voting rights, we declare that everyone in Kentucky counts," Beshear said. "We all matter."

Beshear appears likely to reinstate an executive order signed in 2015 by his father, Democrat Steve Beshear, that was rescinded by Bevin, his successor. That order would have restored voting rights and the right to hold office to more than 140,000 Kentuckians who had completed their sentences and paid all court-ordered fines and restitution.

About one-quarter of the state's disenfranchised population is African-American, a significant portion of whom were convicted on non-violent drug possession charges, according to The Sentencing Project, which advocates for reducing racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

While the new wave of voters will likely vote solidly Democratic, they are unlikely to shift the state's balance of political power. President Trump can be confident of easily carrying the state, which he won by 30 points last time, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is solidly favored to win re-election

Bashear won by just over 5,000 votes, a margin of half a percentage point. Bevin opposed such a widespread restoration of voting rights. He said it would be an abuse of executive power and such a decision should be made by the Legislature.

From Your Site Articles
  • Kentucky's inactive voters get reprieve from red tape - The Fulcrum ›
  • Gov. race in Kentucky key to future of felon voting rights - The Fulcrum ›
  • Rights groups sue Kentucky to expand voting rights - The Fulcrum ›
  • Suit wants Kentucky to keep mail voting rules, delay ID law - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Andy Beshear officially sworn in as Kentucky's next governor ›
  • New KY Gov. Andy Beshear restoring voting rights to felons ... ›
  • Beshear set for 'next chapter' as Bevin concedes in Kentucky ›
felons' voting rights

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow
Contributors

Hypocrisy of pro-lifers being anti-LGBTQIA

Steve Corbin

A dangerous loss of trust

William Natbony

Shifting the narrative on homelessness in America

David L. Nevins

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber
latest News

Podcast: Saving democracy from & with AI

Our Staff
16h

Default? Financial crisis? Political theater?

David Butler
17h

Three practical presidential pledges to promote national prosperity

James-Christian B. Blockwood
31 May

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Justin Roebuck

Mia Minkin
31 May

Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Kevin R. Kosar
Elise J. Bean
30 May

Chipping away at election integrity: Virginia joins red state exodus from ERIC

David J. Toscano
30 May
Videos

Video: Why music? Why now?

David L. Nevins

Video: Honoring Memorial Day

Our Staff

Video: #ListenFirst Friday YOUnify & CPL

Our Staff

Video: What is the toll of racial violence on Black lives?

Our Staff

Video: What's next for migrants seeking asylum after Title 42

Our Staff

Video: An inside look at the campaign to repeal Pennsylvania’s closed primaries

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Saving democracy from & with AI

Our Staff
16h

Podcast: AI revolution: Disaster or great leap forward?

Our Staff
25 May

Podcast: Can we fix America's financial crises?

Our Staff
23 May

Podcast: Gen Z's fight for democracy

Our Staff
22 May
Recommended
Video: Why music? Why now?

Video: Why music? Why now?

Big Picture
Podcast: Saving democracy from & with AI

Podcast: Saving democracy from & with AI

Technology
Default? Financial crisis? Political theater?

Default? Financial crisis? Political theater?

Budgeting
Three practical presidential pledges to promote national prosperity

Three practical presidential pledges to promote national prosperity

Big Picture
Meet the Faces of Democracy: Justin Roebuck

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Justin Roebuck

State
Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Test Unlisted