Kentucky NAACP calls elections bill ‘voter suppression.’ Beshear vetoes it.
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams was effusive last year in his praise of how millions of Kentuckians “defied a pandemic to participate in a historic election” last November in the commonwealth.
The Republican elections official also was grateful to the bipartisan coalition who worked with him —including Gov. Andy Beshear, the State Board of Elections, county clerks and poll workers —“over many months to make Kentucky’s election again a national model.”
Kentucky’s primary and general elections last year may have been historic in another way. They may never happen that way again.
State lawmakers this month approved and sent to Beshear a bill that would take authority for deciding the “manner” of an election away from the governor and secretary of state in emergencies and give it to lawmakers.
Beshear, a Democrat, announced late Monday that he has vetoed it.
Many Republican lawmakers, who control both the state Senate and House, don’t like early voting and increased mail-in ballots —major provisions used in last year’s elections in Kentucky. President Donald Trump also railed against mail-in ballots, contending they caused fraud in the presidential election.
That sentiment was expressed by Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, after he voted in last year’s primary election in November. He tweeted, “I voted in-person today and while it was a very smooth process in Scott County I’ll be urging a return to #NormalInNovember.”
The changes in elections law were contained in Senate Bill 1. The measure also limits the governor’s emergency executive orders, such as those requiring face coverings to be worn in public, to 30 days unless extended by the legislature. It also says the governor needs approval from the attorney general to suspend a state law by executive order in an emergency —a provision Beshear says is unconstitutional.
Quietly added to the bill in a Senate committee was the provision preventing the governor or secretary of state from changing election policies during an emergency.
An official with the state NAACP and the president of the League of Women Voters of Kentucky asked Beshear to veto the measure, although Republicans will likely override him when they return to Frankfort in February. Opponents have vowed to fight the provision in court.
Beshear said he will talk to Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, “to see if there is common ground.”
“The bill amounts to voter suppression. We oppose it,” said Raoul Cunningham, president of the Louisville Branch of the NAACP and a member of the national NAACP board of directors.
“The emergency powers that were executed by the governor and secretary of state in Kentucky’s 2020 primary and general elections increased voter participation,” said Cunningham. “To take this away from the governor and secretary of state and give it to the General Assembly would set Kentucky back in terms of progressive civic engagement.”
Miranda Combs, a spokeswoman for Adams, said about 75 percent of Kentucky voters used an absentee ballot in last June’s primary election and about 30 percent in the general election — about 800,000 in the primary and about 600,000 in the general.
She said the offices of Adams and Republican Attorney General Cameron have found no evidence of any fraud in last year’s elections, as some critics of increased absentee ballots predicted.
Beshear and Adams offered a plan to make voting easier, especially during COVID-19. In addition to broadening absentee qualifications, the state began allowing early in-person voting on Oct. 13, including on some Saturdays.
Kentuckians “had more ways to vote in this election than ever before,” said Beshear.
“It worked out beautifully and now the legislature wants to change it,” said Fran Wagner, president of the League of Women Voters of Kentucky. “If something isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it.”
University of Kentucky law professor Josh Douglas, who specializes in election laws, said last week that Beshear should veto the bill. He said he did not know if it is constitutional or not.
“It’s a big mistake to do away so quickly and completely with what was done last year. It would hamstring the governor and secretary of state,” he said.
Douglas suggested changing the bill to reaffirm the authority of the governor and secretary of state but adding a rule that if they are of the same political party, any emergency election deal must also have the support of a senior member of the other major party.
He said the legislature could define what constitutes a senior member of the other major party.
Combs, Adams’ spokeswoman, said it is the legislature’s prerogative to make election laws.
“We are hopeful they will use that authority to enact reforms to our election system that Secretary Adams created and voters across the spectrum embrace,” she said.
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 10:51 AM.
