Record number of voters include lots of former felons
Herald-Leader Story from today
By Ryan Alessi

Among the already record-setting total of registered voters in Kentucky are 1,486 convicted felons who, after serving their sentences, have had their voting rights restored by Gov. Steve Beshear.

That figure — in Democrat Beshear's first 10 months in office — already is more than the 1,098 approved during former Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher's four-year term, according to records kept by the Secretary of State's office.

Beshear's total puts him on pace to restore voting rights to nearly as many felons in four years as the 7,254 that former Democratic Gov. Paul Patton approved in eight years.

It's not yet known how many of those 1,486 have registered to vote or for which party. The deadline for any unregistered Kentucky citizen to sign up to vote in the Nov. 4 election is 4:30 p.m. Monday....

Read the full Herald-Leader story Here.

KFTC has pushed for restoration of voting rights for former felons for the past 4 1/2 years because Kentucky's extreme disenfranchisement laws (rivaled only by Virginia's) take voting rights away from all former felons, no matter their crime or how long ago they paid their debt.  In all, 186,000 former felons can't vote because of this, including 1 in 4 voting age African Americans.  We won an incremental victory earlier this year in streamlining the process and we've worked with dozens of former felons directly to help them apply and get their rights back.  We think our Democracy is best when everyone gets to participate and build a stake in their community and government.