With that move, Kentucky joined a fast-growing
movement to return voting
rights to former felons, leaving Iowa as the only state that strips all
former felons of the right to cast a ballot.
Since 1997, 24 states have approved some type of
measure to ease voting bans, according to the
Sentencing Project, a Washington group that advocates criminal justice
policy changes. Kentucky joins Virginia, Florida, Nevada and other states that
have extended voting rights in the last few years.
Mr. Beshear said the order would apply to more than
half of the estimated 240,000 Kentuckians with felonies in their past, as well
as those who complete their sentences in the future.
While he believes in justice, he said, “I also believe
in second chances.”
“We’re talking about moms and dads, neighbors and
friends, people who have met and taken on one of the greatest challenges anyone
can face: overcoming the past,” the governor said. “It is an injustice that
their ability to rejoin society by casting a vote on Election Day is
automatically denied.”
Voting-rights advocates called Kentucky’s decision a
significant advance in a campaign to return the vote to felons that began
decades ago and has won widespread attention and support only recently.
But while the most recent changes have returned voting
rights to well over 1.5 million people nationwide, it remains unclear how they
will affect the political process. A handful of academic studies suggest that
former prisoners register and vote at rates well below national averages.
The governor said his order did not extend to those
who committed violent felonies because some offenses, such as rape and murder,
were too heinous to forgive. The order also excludes those who were convicted
under federal law or the laws of other states, although they would be able to
apply individually for restoration of their rights.
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