Want access to KY public records? Show your photo ID or forget it under new bill
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Bill allows agencies to require KY photo ID showing a home address.
- Each agency may decide whether to accept digital or in-person ID.
- Supporters cite AI chatbot misuse; opponents cite access and privacy risks.
Public agencies could compel people to present a Kentucky driver’s license or other government-issued photo identification before they can see public records under a bill headed to the House floor.
House Bill 567 would amend the Kentucky Open Records Act, the law that gives citizens access to most documents and data in the possession of state and local governments, school districts, state universities and other public institutions.
The legislature narrowed the law in 2021 to limit public records access to Kentucky residents. This House bill would narrow the law even further by allowing public agencies to require those requesting public records to prove they are Kentucky residents by presenting a valid photo ID showing their Kentucky home address.
The bill is backed by the Kentucky League of Cities, which had a lobbyist, Gracie Kelly, testify for the bill on Thursday before the House State Government Committee.
The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Patrick Flannery, R-Olive Hill, told the committee that AI chatbots are bombarding public agencies with records requests, often from outside Kentucky. The chatbots easily can check the box on agencies’ online records request forms indicating they are state residents, Flannery said.
“There’s really no proof of who they are or if they meet the current residency requirements,” Flannery said. “So what this bill attempts to address is to enforce the residency requirement, and it would set up a system where they have to show proof.”
The House committee voted 14-to-1, with three members passing, to approve the bill.
The Kentucky Open Government Coalition opposed the bill, writing in a letter to the committee that it would create an additional burden for Kentuckians seeking legitimate access to public records. Kentucky erred when it established the residency requirement for public records requests in the first place, the coalition said.
During the committee hearing, state Rep. John Hodgson, R-Fisherville, asked for specifics. Would someone requesting public records online or by email be able to submit a copy of their driver’s license digitally, Hodgson asked, or must they drive to wherever in the state the agency is located and produce it in person?
That would be left to the discretion of each individual public agency, said Kelly of the League of Cities.
“So that would be up to the law enforcement agency or the clerk or — whether it’s a ‘Send us an email of your photo ID’ or ‘You have to come in person,’” Kelly told Hodgson.
The sole “no” vote Thursday came from state Rep. Erika Hancock, D-Frankfort, who said she worries that many Kentuckians won’t want to email a copy of their driver’s license to a stranger online or drive across the state to show it to someone.
Requiring people from different parts of Kentucky to show up at a public agency with their driver’s license is asking a lot, Hancock said.
“We’re lucky to be here in Frankfort, to walk into some of these agencies with a physical copy of our driver’s license,” Hancock said. Besides, she added: “I think that the bots are going to get even better, and they will come up with fake IDs.”
