Some Kentucky lawmakers want to expand who can vote in our elections, specifically those formerly incarcerated.

While Governor Andy Beshear restored a felon voting rights.

A bipartisan pair of lawmakers want the policy to outlive his administration.

Our John Lefler has more in tonight's legislative update.

The fight for voting rights isn't new in Kentucky.

These lawmakers remember proposing legislation in 2020.

We passed my bill out of the Senate.

It went to the House.

I believe it would have passed, but we cut the session short because of Covid.

Lawmakers have continued to file bills to amend the state constitution, which says only the governor can restore voting rights.

The legislature would have to support a ballot measure that Kentucky voters approved to change the constitution.

Once someone has, been convicted of a crime, they do their time and they come out that, a part of them coming out and being a citizen and being whole, is it that they should be able to vote again?

I had a lot of my my friends convicted of felony, during the years you, mainly dealing with marijuana.

So, that's why I've got involved in it.

And 40 other states, voting rights are never revoked or are automatically restored after incarceration or parole.

What I want you all to understand is that if somebody is convicted of something like a murder, so I think that a lot of time, that's where people go to.

They are they do, 15 to 20 plus years, they get out, and they still have to be on probation.

And so this would say that they still have to get off of probation in order for them to vote.

So you're still talking about another five to, maybe 15 years before that individual would be able to vote?

During a legislative committee meeting, others supported the idea.

If we believe that we're rehabilitating people and this is just another step in their rehabilitation, it is only fair and right that people who have completed their sentence and pay all restitution, they should have their voting rights restored.

The state senators did not present any draft legislation.

Lawmakers also discussed how schools can, as they frequently do, be polling sites for the 2026 election.

However, state testing mandated by the Kentucky Department of Education could coincide with early voting.

My suggestion, which I don't it's not fully been thought through, is that the superintendent, if his schools are going to be used for early voting, can he, on those particular schools use NTI days and not have to shut the whole system down?

Or we could pass legislation just to make sure that Katie does not set testing dates at the same time the election nights are going on, and that would be a pretty simple fix to the situation without having to dive into the into the issue or anything like that.

Early voting is always the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before Election Day.

For Kentucky edition, I'm June Leffler.

Thanks so much.

June.

Governor Andy Beshear 2019 order.

Restoring voting rights is not universal.

Those who serve time for violent crimes are not eligible.