Kentucky’s newly elected Democratic governor restored the right to vote to more than 140,000 convicted felons who have completed their sentences.
Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order Thursday granting people with nonviolent felonies the right to vote and hold public office.
“I believe in the law,” Beshear said. “I also believe in redemption, 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,” he said. “It is an injustice that their ability to rejoin society by casting a vote on Election Day is automatically denied.”
Beshear said the executive order did not extend to people who committed violent felonies.
Kentucky’s constitution denies felons the right to vote but allows the governor to restore that right. The governor’s executive order effectively revives a similar one that his father, former Gov. Steve Beshear, signed in 2015. Matt Bevin, his Republican successor who narrowly lost reelection last month, revoked the order.
Iowa is now the only state with a total ban on voting by felons.
