The social networking site Facebook has been a key way to mobilize members and allies of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth for a few years now - for events, legislative call-in actions, etc.

But today may have been the first big (albeit fairly spontaneous) instance of lots of KFTC members and allies using Facebook to both organize and directly contact a legislator to demonstrate support for a bill. 

Senator Damon Thayer has been preventing HB 70, our bill to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society, from being voted on in his committee.  He also uses Facebook to organize his own supporters.

Today, over 80 KFTC members and allies contacted Thayer by leaving public messages on his Facebook page, all asking him to support and/or allow HB 70 to come to a vote in his committee. 

You can see the full list of comments and leave your own (polite but firm) encouragement to Thayer to allow his committee to vote on HB 70 at Damon Thayer's Facebook Page HERE.  Maybe we can top 100 comments.

This has also proven to be a great way to get people to write down how they feel about an issue so they can use that same content in a letter to the editor.  At least two of the people who have posted to Thayer's Facebook wall have already submitted the same letter to their local newspaper.

We even got a little local blog attention from the folks over at Barefoot and Progressive. 

Kudos for the idea of posting the requests on Thayer's wall. I hope it is wildly successful. And just as an aside, it is so encouraging to see all of the comments. Nothing against calling the message line, but this action gives you a real visual of solidarity on this issue." - Hillary Bullock, after she left a note on Thayer's wall.

We'll see how Senator Damon Thayer responds. 

And either way, we'll keep calling, writing, holding events, going door-to-door, and building leaders until we win this one.

There is still time for YOU to write a letter to the editor about voting rights or some other issue and to have it get out in time to make an impact in the General Assembly in Frankfort. 

At this juncture, we’re quite sure we have a little more than 60% support in the Kentucky Senate that we need to pass HB 70 - our proposed constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society. 

We also have nine votes in the Senate State and Local government committee that the bill is presently in.  That’s two more votes than we need in the committee of 12 people.  

But just because we have the votes we need, it doesn’t mean that we’re sure we’ll win.
Incredibly, State and Local Government Committee Chairman Senator Damon Thayer (presumably backed up by Senate President David Williams) will still not allow the bill to come up for a vote. 

The campaign is now focused overwhelmingly on just two targets - convincing Thayer and Williams to allow the vote to be heard.

One of the most-effective things that you can do is to write a letter to the editor today.  It's faster and easier than you think (maybe even just 15 minutes)  and can make a real impact.

For maximum effect, send your letters to the Herald-Leader, the Courier Journal, or the Georgetown News-Graphic (Thayer's hometown newspaper).  Click on the name of the paper to go to a simple online form to send your letter.

Possible points or themes to use, but just pick one and keep it simple:

- Allow the Voting Rights bill to come to a vote in committee.  We have the votes to pass it and it's an obstruction of basic democracy for Thayer to block the vote.  Let the people decide!

- Kentucky is one of just two states that doesn't automatically restore voting rights to any former felons once they've served their time.  Once someone has served their debt, it's only fair.

- Tell a short  personal story about why this issue is important to you.  That's usually the most powerful thing to communicate.

You can also take a moment to contact these two key legislators personally to ask them to allow HB 70 to be heard – or contact your own senator to help put pressure on them.

Senator David Williams

Senate District 16
Clinton, Cumberland, McCreary, Monroe, Wayne, and Whitley counties

Email Form

Mailing Address
PO Box 666
Burkesville KY 42717

Frankfort Address
702 Capitol Ave
Annex Room 236
Frankfort KY 40601

Phone Numbers
Home: (270) 433-7777
Frankfort: (502) 564-3120

Senator Damon Thayer

Senate District 17
Grant, southern Kenton (southern), Owen, and Scott Counties

Thayer's Email Form

Thayer's Facebook Page

Mailing Address
102 Grayson Way
Georgetown KY 40324

Frankfort Address
702 Capitol Ave
Annex Room 209
Frankfort KY 40601

Phone Numbers
Home: (859) 621-6956
Frankfort: (502) 564-8100 Ext. 644

Yesterday, KFTC members and allies filled the halls of Frankfort for our major lobby day to support HB 70, our proposed constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.  

Three hundred of us were there, breaking most of us into small lobby teams to talk to senators about House Bill 70.  We met with more than twenty senators total (of only 38), including many key meetings with leaders and committee chairs.  We built more and more support among legislators, slightly moving many of them in the right direction. 

At this point, we have the votes we need to pass the bill both in the Senate committee and the 60% we need to pass the full Senate.  The primary obstacle to a victory is allowing the bill to be voted on in the Senate State and Local Government Committee, chaired by Senator Damon Thayer.  

We met with Thayer with 13 people including 9 from his district, 2 religious leaders, 2 law students, and others with powerful personal stories. 

They made strong arguments rooted in values like fairness, democracy, faith, and crime prevention - and rooted in real life experiences.  When Thayer dismissed HB 70 by claiming we have a process to restore rights already, Charlie House stepped in to let him know that he's tried to get his rights back four times and has never succeeded. 

Mostly, Thayer didn't make a reasoned argument at all, instead simply saying "no" without  rationale.  He explained to members that this is a Republic, not a Democracy, and he is elected to make decisions for the people using his own best judgment.   Furthermore, he told us that as committee chair, he has the ability to decide which bills are allowed to be voted on and he has never allowed anything to come to a vote that he didn't agree with. 

Our campaign is now strongly focused on just that point - putting pressure on Senator Damon Thayer to allow the bill to come to a vote - and also to put pressure on Senate President David Williams.  We had a meeting in Thayer's hometown in Georgetown last night after the lobby day to focus on what we can do there.  More on this in another blog post soon. 

Our Voting Rights lobby day culminated in a powerful rally and included a lot of people who brought their personal stories about why we should restore voting rights:

Tayna Fogle – Former felon, Lexington
Charlie House – Former felon, Henderson
Jerry Moody – Brother of a former felon, Lexington
Rep Jesse Crenshaw – Kentucky Representative, Lexington
Gail Ray – Mother of a former felon, Georgetown
Maria Houghton – Former felon from Lexington – singing America the Beautiful
Carl Shoupe – Father of a former felon, Harlan County
Janssen Willhoit - Former felon, Lexington

We'll have some video from the event soon in the next few days.

Some local media pieces on the event:

Ashland Daily Independent Story

WTVQ Story

Wave 3 Story

 Look for another blog post soon about some next-steps.

Our big Voting Rights Rally and Lobby Day is Tomorrow (Thursday) in Frankfort!

We're working to help restore voting rights to 186,000 former felons in Kentucky once they've served their debt to society.

Several hundred of us will be in Frankfort from 9am to 2:30pm with a powerful rally in the rotunda from 1pm to 2pm.

For more details on the day, visit here

To learn more about the issue and find other ways to take action from home, including calling or writing legislators, click Here

KFTC members and allies came together in Louisville this past weekend to at Greater Friendship Baptist Church for Singing for Democracy, an event to raise awareness of our campaign to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.
 
Down by the Wayside, a the gospel choir organized through Wayside Christian Mission, performed with help from other local singers and other acts (Anthony Hamilton, Sean Thomas, Brandi, Ray Hodges, Maria Houghton, and Bonnie Blair).  

Speakers highlighted stories of redemption and forgiveness through their journeys to recovery as well as civic engagement. Individuals like Venita Goodner, a former felon who now works for the Department of Corrections and volunteers for prison ministry and Sean Real Thomas another former felon and local spoken word artist will be included in the program.

Amidst the powerful performances and speakers, participants also took time to take action to support House Bill 70, our proposed legislation to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their time.  They filled out postcards to senators and pledged to call the legislative message line and come out to lobby in Frankfort on our major lobby day this Thursday.

Sponsoring groups included Making Connections Network, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, People Advocating Recovery, The Beacon House, Ladies of Promise, American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, Our Father’s House, Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and Kentucky Jobs with Justice.

KFTC members and allies are already talking about our next Singing for Democracy event in Louisville and members are talking about other communities we might hold events in - like in Georgetown.

Last week, we had a strong voting rights presentation at the UK Law School with over 80 students coming out to participate. Tayna Fogle and Tyler Birdwhistle spoke to the crowd who asked great questions and were very supportive.  We were also sure to let everyone there know how to use the legislative message hotline and to otherwise support HB 70. 

Tyler, John Ghaelian and others at this meeting are now circulating a petition to UK Law students in favor of restoring voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.  They're planning on delivering the petitions to key Kentucky senators in the coming weeks.

The Northern KY KFTC group had it's second meeting last week, and got a good start on planning local actions. 

The group broke into functional issue workteams focusing on tax justice, voting rights, and mining issues, planning local events including a letter-writing day and a Budget Bake Sale on NKU's campus. 

Since the meeting, the group held its first fundraiser at Joe Gallenstein's home - a Euchre for Justice tournament.  That same day, they held their first Chapter Development Workteam meeting to plan out next month's big meeting and to better spread out leadership roles in the organization.

Momentum is on our side!  We've convinced a lot of key senators to support our Voting Rights bill in the last few days, in part because of your calls and other actions.

Our ally organizations across the state are all encouraging their members to call in today, so we're hoping to generate a thousand or more calls!  Even if you've called before, please call again today. 


Take Action:

Take just three minutes to continue the push to restore voting rights for 186,000 former felons in Kentucky once they've served their debt to society.

Call the Legislative Message Line (1-800-372-7181) as soon as you can, and ask to leave a message for "Senate Leadership, Senate State and Local Government Committee," and your own Senator.

The line is open until 11pm.

Message: "Please vote yes on House Bill 70."


PS - KFTC and our voting rights allies will be hosting a Voting Rights Rally and Lobby Day on March 4th.  We hope you can join us

We also have a great Singing For Democracy Gospel Fest in Louisville this weekend.

We're playing a little catchup today, posting some recent news stories about our campaign to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society, starting with an especially strong one from today's Danville Advocate-Messenger

FRANKFORT — Tayna Fogle’s grandmother always was excited when she got to vote. It was an excitement Fogle couldn’t initially grasp. But then Fogle made some bad decisions and wound up a convicted felon facing a 10-year sentence.

After serving her time, which ended up being just under seven years in prison, Fogle was released, her debt paid. She was free but still couldn’t do one thing she wanted to do: vote.

And that’s when she understood her grandmother’s excitement.

“I didn’t understand it at first until my rights were taken away from me,” she said. “I still get emotional just remembering how I felt.”

Kentucky is one of the most stringent states when it comes to giving voting rights to convicted felons. Once convicted felons have completed their sentences and paid all restitution, they can only have their voting rights restored through an executive pardon from the governor. 

To read the full Danville Advocate-Messenger story, click HERE.