Hundreds rally for bill that would let felons vote after serving time

186,000 KENTUCKIANS DISENFRANCHISED BECAUSE OF CONVICTIONS

By John Cheves

JCHEVES@HERALD-LEADER.COM

Mark Cornelison | Staff

Antonio Majors signed into Thursday's rally as supporters of House Bill 70 crowded into the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort. The bill would restore voting rights to felons who weren't convicted of murder or child-sex crimes. The number of pardons decreased under Gov. Ernie Fletcher. Photo by Mark Cornelison | Staff

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FRANKFORT --

Hundreds of people rallied at the Capitol on Thursday for a constitutional amendment that automatically would restore the right to vote to most felons once they finish their sentences.

Kentucky is one of just three states to permanently strip felons of the right to vote. Only a governor can offer a partial pardon that restores their civil rights. Under former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who added new requirements such as an essay and three character references, the number of pardons dwindled.

Kentucky has the country's sixth-highest rate of voter disenfranchisement, with about 186,000 people barred from voting because of a felony conviction, according to a 2006 report by the League of Women Voters of Kentucky. Nearly one in four black adults is ineligible because of a felony, the group said.

Most of the disenfranchised, like Katrina Byrnes of Louisville, have completed their sentences and returned to their communities.

"It's like I don't have any say in how things are run. I pay my taxes, but I don't get to pick the people who decide things," said Byrnes, who was convicted more than a decade ago for what she described as her accidental involvement in an arson. She applied to Gov. Steve Beshear for a pardon earlier this year.

House Bill 70 would restore voting rights to felons other than those convicted of murder or child-sex offenses. It has stalled on the House floor while lawmakers debate casino gambling. On Thursday, House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, said he supports the bill but does not know when it will receive a floor vote.

House Republicans have filed amendments to the bill that would declare additional types of offenders ineligible from voting and require felons to pass a civics test before they could vote again.

A similar version of the bill passed the House in a previous session but died in the Senate.

At the rally, Tayna Fogle of Covington explained how cocaine addiction led her to write bad checks, which ultimately landed her in prison as a felon.

Years later, clean and sober, Fogle was startled to learn that she no longer could vote.

Fogle spent four years filling out forms and applying to two governors, Paul Patton and Fletcher. Her paperwork was lost and had to be refiled. The essay alone gave her pause because she wasn't sure what Fletcher wanted to hear, she said.

"I'm pretty well educated. I'm a graduate at the University of Kentucky," she said. "If I had a hard time doing everything they asked me to do, I look at all these people behind me who may be substantially illiterate, and I wonder how they're supposed to do it."

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