Disenfranchisement of Kentuckians serving time for misdemeanors | Kentuckians For The Commonwealth

Disenfranchisement of Kentuckians serving time for misdemeanors

One of KFTC's major statewide campaigns is to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.  But a little know fact is that Kentuckians convicted of even the most minor misdemeanors who happen to be serving jail time on Election Day also lose the right to vote (Kentucky Constitution, section 145)

Note that Kentuckians who are in jail for, but who have not been convicted of either a felony or a misdemeanor, may request an absentee ballot by contacting the County Clerk in the county they are registered to vote in.   

“The following voters may apply to cast their votes by mail-in absentee ballot if the application is received not later than the close of business hours seven (7) days before the election:... Voters who are incarcerated in jail who have been charged with a crime but have not been convicted of the crime” (KRS 117.085)    

And of course someone who merely has a misdemeanor in their past retains the right to vote.   

KFTC Electoral Organizer Tayna Fogle has been working with those communities in jails near Central Kentucky to make sure that inmates who legally can are registered to vote and ready to request absentee ballots in October. 

Issue Area(s): 

Add new comment

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.