We had a powerful Voting Rights Strategy meeting on this past Saturday in Lexington, bringing out a total of 35 people from all over the state, including former felons, long-time voting rights activists, and people who are new to the campaign.  The focus was on building our legislative strategy to pass HB 70 - our bill to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.   

Allies represented included The Beacon House, KY Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression, KY Jobs with Justice, ACLU, People Advocating Recovery, The KY Quakers, and the Central KY Council for Peace and Justice, as well as many KFTC Chapters.

Much of the beginning of the agenda focused on finding common ground and learning from each other - what we've accomplished as individual organizations and rooting ourselves in the reasons this campaign matters to us. 

Senate legislative strategy was also key - identifying key legislators and thinking about who we know in their districts and what it would take to move them to strongly support HB 70, our bill to restore voting rights to former felons.

Another big part was about making commitments - to generate letters to the editor, bring people to Frankfort, conduct education activities and door-to-door work, and enhance our ability to tell stories of former felons through videos and interviews.  We spent a lot of time making plant to bring as many people as we can to our March 4th Voting Rights Lobby Day in Frankfort.

Another result of the meeting was that we've set a statewide voting rights call-in day for Tuesday, February 23rd.  On that day, all of our allies will encourage members to call-in via the legislative message line, focusing on Senators, asking them to support HB 70. 

 We hope that you can plan to join us for our major voting Rights Lobby Day on March 4th and can also join us in calling and writing your KY Senator about this important issue.