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Recovery in the News
Group pushes for simpler way to restore voting rights to felons
Joe Biesk
Associated Press
November 2, 2006
FRANKFORT , Ky. - Armed with a new study claiming Kentucky's procedures for restoring felons' voting rights are too stringent, several groups called Thursday for a constitutional amendment that would simplify the process.
"A felony conviction is tantamount to a life sentence," Raoul Cunningham, president of the Louisville chapter of the NAACP, said of Kentucky's current process.
Instead, the groups supported a constitutional amendment they say would improve felons' chances of reinstatement by bypassing the governor's office, which currently has final say on the matter. The proposed amendment was recommended as part of a study presented by the League of Women Voters of Kentucky. The amendment would automatically reinstate felons' rights after they serve their time.
Kentucky 's current process for reinstating felons' voting rights is one of the nation's toughest, the study found. Kentucky is one of three states - Florida and Virginia being the others - that revokes a person's right to vote after a felony conviction. The person must personally ask the governor for reinstatement after leaving prison.
Currently, there are more than 186,000 people living in Kentucky who have been disqualified from voting because of a felony, the league found. One out of every 17 Kentuckians, and one out of every four blacks in the state are disenfranchised because of a felony conviction, the report found.
However, David E. Fleenor, Fletcher's deputy general counsel, disputed the group's figures. Fleenor said Fletcher has reinstated voting rights to nearly 80 percent of those who submitted completed applications.
None of the applicants have been rejected, Fleenor said. Some of the applications remain on file, and they're periodically reviewed, he said.
Fleenor said the reinstatement process was reasonable and the governor's office has never refused assistance to anyone seeking help in the process.
Fletcher spokeswoman Jodi Whitaker said the governor would evaluate the idea of an amendment.
Former state Sen. Georgia Powers, now the Louisville NAACP's vice president, said many felons would like to vote in elections, but feel intimidated by the current reinstatement process.
"It's ridiculous that in Kentucky we have so many disenfranchised people who live in our community," Powers said.
Copyright 2006 Lexington Herald-Leader/ © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved