Tell Your Legislators Now: Everybody Votes

Not that most Kentucky legislators give a flying fuck what heir non-guntard, non-freakazoid constituents think, but for the record: Kentuckians think everybody, including ex-felons, should vote.

Andrew Wolfson at the Courier:

A majority of Kentucky voters say they favor amending the state constitution to allow convicted felons to regain their right to vote once they serve their full sentences.

A poll of 616 registered voters taken Feb. 19-21 by SurveyUSA for The Courier-Journal found that 51 percent favored such an amendment, while 38 percent opposed it. The poll question had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

Many Kentuckians appear to share the view of Thomas Vance, 62, a disabled retired Air Force master sergeant who lives in Alexandria . In a follow-up interview, Vance said denying felons the vote after they serve their sentence is “piling on.”

“It is just not fair,” he said. “If I did my time, that should be the end of it.”

Kentucky is one of only five states that bar all felons from the polls unless their voting rights are restored through a pardon from the governor or another agency.

 This is one of four major legislative priorities for Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.

Last week, HB 70, our bill to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society, passed a vote in House Committee 6 to 1. Now it will come up for a vote on the House Floor any day now and we want to express our support of the bill to legislators loud and clear.
 
Please take two minutes and call the legislative message line, 1-800-372-7181, leaving a message for your own representative plus "House Leadership."

A good, simple message is "please support HB 70."

The message line is open until 11pm, so please call as soon as you can.

Also, please plan on joining us on March 6th for our big Voting Rights Lobby Day and Rally.

 This is America, goddammit. Everybody votes.