Voting Rights Restoration

Voting Rights Restoration for People with Prior Felony Convictions

The League of Women Voters of Lexington supports the work of the LWVKY in the effort to restore the voting rights of people who have completed sentencing for a felony conviction.

The number of people in Kentucky who support automatic restoration of voting rights upon completion of sentence is increasing. The current 67% approval of automatic restoration by Kentucky voters has increased from the 66% approval in the 2018 Mason-Dixon poll and the 56% approval in a 2006 poll of Kentucky voters conducted by the UK Survey Research Center.


2021 Felony Disenfranchisement Report (LWVKY)

Kentucky remains 1 of 3 states, along with Iowa and Virginia, that does not automatically restore voting rights to people with a felony conviction.

The League of Women Voters of KY’s released a report, An Update: Felony Disenfranchisement in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, on January 28, 2021, updating the 2020 report data.

The report shows that Kentucky has

  • 197,672 citizens, formerly convicted of a felony, remain disenfranchised despite the Governor’s 2019 Executive Order 2019-003 that enabled 178,397 to regain the right to register and vote.

  • The fourth worst state for restoring voting rights

  • The seventh highest rate of disenfranchisement of African-Americans in the nation. Of the 256,024 African-Americans of voting age in Kentucky, 38,665 or 15.1% are disenfranchised. Kentucky is an outlier.

A February 2021 Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, Inc. of Jacksonville, Florida statewide poll of Kentucky voters showed that

  • The majority of Kentuckians, across political affiliation, gender and age categories, support the automatic restoration of voting rights for persons who complete their felony sentence.

  • Overall support is 67% in favor and 28% opposed.

  • Highest support for automatic restoration is from those 18-34 years of age with approval at 84% and disapproval at 9%.

  • Kentucky male voters support automatic restoration with 63% approving and 34% not approving.

  • Kentucky women voters support restoration by a larger majority with 71% approving and 22% not approving.

The poll results and the 2021 LWVKY’s Felony Disenfranchisement Report, along with the 2020, 2019, 2017, 2013 and 2006 Reports, are available at Felony Disenfranchisement — League of Women Voters of Kentucky (lwvky.org)

Learn more about restoring voting rights on www.cleanslateky.com

 
 

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