Support efforts to restore ex-felon voting rights | Kentuckians For The Commonwealth

Support efforts to restore ex-felon voting rights

Terry Naydan and Nita Smith | Op-Ed
February 23, 2017
Lexington Herald-Leader

Kentucky is one of only four states that ban former felons from voting, ranking third in the rate of disenfranchisement overall and first in disenfranchisement of African-Americans. Many states allow persons to vote once their sentences have been served and some never take away voting rights, allowing prisoners to vote.

Restoration of voting rights is another way to help these citizens become contributing members of their communities and to reduce recidivism, thus saving the state the high cost of additional convictions and incarceration … we ask legislators to support Senate Bill 69 or House Bill 170 which would put a constitutional amendment on the ballot allowing citizens to decide whether to automatically restore voting rights to those who have made mistakes but paid their debt to society.

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