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Kentucky Voting Rights Restoration Amendment (2016)
| Voting Rights Restoration Amendment | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Amendment |
| Origin | Kentucky legislature |
| Topic | Suffrage |
| Status | Not on the ballot |
| Not on Ballot |
|---|
 |
| This measure was not put on an election ballot |
The Kentucky Voting Rights Restoration Amendment did not qualify for the November 8, 2016 ballot in Kentucky as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment. The measure, upon voter approval, would have restored voting rights for certain felons following "expiration of probation or final discharge from parole or maximum expiration of sentence." The amendment would have also removed the ban on "idiots and insane persons" from voting. Felons convicted of treason, "the intentional killing of a human being not done under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance for which there exists a reasonable explanation or excuse, sexual contact with a minor, sexual intercourse, or deviate sexual intercourse or of bribery in an election" would not have regained voting rights, except by executive pardon.[1]
Text of measure
Constitutional changes
The proposed amendment would amend Section 145 of the Kentucky Constitution. The following underlined text would be added and struck-through text deleted by the proposed measure's approval:[1]
1. Persons convicted in any court of competent jurisdiction of treason, or of any felony that includes as an element of the offense the intentional killing of a human being not done under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance for which there exists a reasonable explanation or excuse, sexual contact with a minor, sexual intercourse, or deviate sexual intercourse, or of bribery in an election, or of such high misdemeanor as the General Assembly may declare shall operate as an exclusion from the right of suffrage, but persons hereby excluded may be restored to their civil rights by executive pardon. Persons convicted in any court of competent jurisdiction of any other felony shall be excluded from the right of suffrage until expiration of probation or final discharge from parole or maximum expiration of sentence, but persons hereby excluded may be restored to their civil rights earlier by executive pardon.
2. Persons who, at the time of the election, are in confinement under the judgment of a court for some penal offense.
3. Idiots and insane persons.[2]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Amending the Kentucky Constitution
An amendment needed to receive a 60 percent supermajority vote in both chambers of the Kentucky General Assembly to be placed on the ballot.
On February 12, 2015, the Kentucky House of Representatives passed the amendment, with 86 representatives voting in favor and 12 voting against.[1]
The 2015 legislative session ended on March 25, 2015, without the legislature passing the amendment.[3] Sponsors did not reintroduce the amendment during the 2016 legislative session.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Kentucky Legislature, "House Bill 70," accessed March 20, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source.
- ↑ The State Journal, "The 2015 Legislative Session Has Ended," March 25, 2015
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State of Kentucky Frankfort (capital) |
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