In an attempt to share more of the stories from former felons across the Commonwealth, we’re presenting a series of short interviews every few weeks on our blog and in balancing the scales.

"I'm a veteran of 9 years in the US Army infantry.
My dad was in the military and I grew up on army bases...  Both my grandfathers served in the military too." 

But despite this service and more, James Snyder does not have the right to vote here in Kentucky. 

"I pay taxes, but I'm not represented.  Effectively, I'm not a citizen because citizenship means having a voice in government through the ballot box.  It just doesn't seem right to me."

James has lived in Illinois for the last few years, working as a deputy voter registrar for the board of elections in Illinois - helping people register and vote.  And when he lived there, of course, he could vote.  Kentucky is one of just 4 states that take away voting rights from all former felons even after they've served their debt to society. 

"My parents aren't doing so well, so I'm back in Kentucky to take care of them and help around the house.  Because I'm on this side of the border of Illinois, I can't vote."

"The most recent of my two felony convictions is over 14 years old and neither of them are from Kentucky.  In fact, if I lived in either of those states, they recognize that I've served my debt to society and I could vote there."

Even with substantial political ties, James found it hard to know if he even had the right to vote in Kentucky.

"I talked to a few different lawyers and I got conflicting answers.  Frankly, I could have gotten away with registering and voting because Kentucky would be unlikely to compare lists with other states, but credibility is important to me, so I spent a lot of effort to understand whether or not I have the right to vote here.  It seems I don't."

As a Scott County resident, James Snyder's own Senator is Damon Thayer, the legislator who has prevented HB 70 from coming up for a vote in recent years in his Senate State and Local Government Committee.  

Snyder joined KFTC for his first citizen lobby day in Frankfort a few days ago and is looking forward to talking to Thayer in person. 

"I served my country, with due respect, more than any legislator I see that's standing in the way of this legislation.  And I served my time for what I've done wrong too.  The right thing to do would be to let me and others like me to vote." 

"It renders moot the idea that "if you don't vote, you can't complain."  I'm complaining because I can't vote."

James is doing better than that - networking with people in Scott County through KFTC and otherwise to gain voting rights for former felons and for a host of other issues he cares about too. 

"I can join in politics in other ways - and I do because it's important to me- but not being able to vote sure does make it harder."

The Scott County Chapter had another great meeting on Thursday.  Members reported on the last Steering Committee meeting, the Martin Luther King Day march in Georgetown, lobby-training in Lexington, and some exciting first-time lobbying in Frankfort – by a new member, at that!

We welcomed several active new members, including two sociology majors at Georgetown College who plan to focus on organizing their fellow undergraduates.

We are continuing to build support for curbside recycling in Georgetown, contacting Georgetown residents who have signed our petition in favor of curbside recycling, writing letters to the editor and sending letters and emails to City Council members.  We also continue to work with the City’s recycling Committee to evaluate different options for expanded recycling in Georgetown.

On Monday February 13th we will attend the City Council meeting and offer citizen comment in favor of a curbside recycling program.  Everyone is invited to attend to show support and to meet fellow Georgetonians who are fans of recycling and sustainability!  The meeting is at City Hall (just behind the old County Court House on the Corner of Main and Broadway) beginning at 6:30 PM.

Each year the Scott County Chapter works with the Georgetown Branch of the NAACP on voter registration, voter empowerment and promotion of House Bill 70, the amendment to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their time.  Several Chapter members plan to turn out for the NAACP’s “Meet and Greet” event at the Ed Davis Center at 6:30 on Thursday, February 9.

We are also working on local turnout for I Love Mountains Day, with high attendance expected from the College.  All Scott County members are reminded of the importance of this event:  KFTC members from the coalfields tell us all the time how much it means to them to get support from members outside the mountains.

Upcoming events of note:
Feb 6th – Health impacts of coal webinar 7pm
Feb 9th - NAACP Meet and Greet 6:30-pm at the Ed Davis Learning Ctr.
Feb 13th - City Council Meeting.  6:30pm at City Hall.
Feb 14th – I Love Mountains Day.  Noon-2pm at the capitol steps with optional lobbying beforehand.  We'll be car pooling at 11am from the Anderson parking lot at Georgetown College.
Feb 28th – Clean Energy Lobby Day -  8:30am-3pm
March 1st - Scott County KFTC Meeting.  7pm.
March 8th – Voting Rights Lobby Day - 9am to 2:30pm

                               - Homer White, Scott County Membership Coordinator

Scott County KFTC members made a good start to the new year last night with a powerful chapter meeting, gearing up for the General Assembly, as well as a kick-start for the local curbside recycling campaign. 

Throughout much of 2011, we worked with city council members and others to find a path forward in providing curbside recycling, but officials have been less enthusiastic in recent months and we've decided to go back to a grassroots strategy of building public support and making sure people contact their city council members. 

Our January Recycling plans are to:

1. Mail a letter to people who have already signed our recycling petition by Jan 12th.

2. Phone-Bank to follow up on the letter at 7pm on Jan 17th.  We'll call from Alison’s home at 109 West Chopin Way in Georgetown (859-229-8286).
3. Petition Drive at Recycling Center - Saturday January 21st , 9-11 AM
4. Bring out lots of people to the City Council Meeting Monday January 23.  Have several people sign up for citizen comment, with as many as possible showing up in support.

We could use extra volunteers at every point in this process, so please come out and join us - especially for the January 23rd council meeting. 

Talking points for City Council:

• Increasing volume keeps city from losing money on recycling.  We lost about $$80,000 last fiscal year, but cities with higher volumes made profits. 
• Other small towns (Midway, Versailles) have it, why not us, too?
• If it takes some investment up front, no problem!  We are willing to pay for good public services.  There are things we can and should do together, and responsible care of our land and environment is one of them.
• Personal stories, especially those shared at the meeting.

Other Scott County Updates:

- Grassroots Citizen Lobbying Training:  Come to Lobbying Training in Lexington (Friends Meeting, 649 Price Avenue) 6-9 PM Monday, January 9th.  Scott County KFTC members will be coming up to Frankfort a lot during the session.  Much more on this later. 

- Watch the KFTC Calendar for updates about the local MLK Day March on Monday Jan 16th.  We hope to bring out lots of members to participate.

- Sign our petition so that we can let the mayor and city council know you support curbside recycling.  You can also help us circulate the petition amongst friends and neighbors. 

- Write a letter to the editor to the Georgetown News-Graphic in support of curbside recycling.  Even a small, simple letter can reach thousands of people and the entire city council.
Georgetown News-Graphic 1481 Cherry Blossom Way Georgetown, Kentucky 40324
You can also submit a letter online at Here.

- Join us at the next Kentuckians For The Commonwealth Meeting – on the 1st Thursday of each month from 7pm to 9pm at the Scott County Public Library, 104 S. Bradford Ln, Georgetown.

- Contact the Mayor and City Council to let them know you support curbside recycling.   A quick, polite phone conversation, email, or letter could show public support for recycling.

Mayor Everette Varney   - Email Form -   502-863-9800

Georgetown City Council
David Lusby   - Email Form -   502-863-2663
Kelly McEuen   - Email Form -   502 867-3835
Brad Penn   - Email Form -   502-863-4918
Larry Prather   - Email Form -   502 863-0350
Mark Singer   - Email Form -   502-867-1948
Bonnie Skinner   - Email Form -   502-867-6942
Connie K. Tackett   - Email Form -   502 863-2699
Marvin Thompson   - Email Form -   502-867-1415

All city council members are "at large" so each of them represent each Georgetown resident equally. 

Printable Materials:

- Petition

- Handout

- Sign/ Clipboard-back

The Kentucky General Election three weeks ago marked the ending of six statewide races for public office.  Most people only paid much attention to the Governor's race, but many KFTC members were at least as interested in the Secretary of State's race

Secretary of State candidate Bill Johnson made his campaign about the issues - more-so than any other candidate running this year.

He was polling just a few points behind Alison Lundergan Grimes when he sharpened his campaign rhetoric around three primary policy planks:
- Preventing Kentuckians without homes from being able to vote.
- Instituting a mandatory photo ID requirement for voting, despite the fact that 10% or so of the voting population have no such IDs.
- Keeping former felons from being able to vote.

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth has spent the last 7 years building a campaign around voting rights and a lot of our members increasingly began to speak out against Johnson's plans.

Seeing this threat to our Democracy, the New Power PAC launched a campaign in the weeks leading up to the election that brought out the powerful stories of people Bill Johnson wanted to keep the right to vote from - people who were previously strangely absent from the dialogue.  With a strong web, mail, ground, and print media campaign, we were able to reach broadly and deeply across the state to connect with people on these vital issues and to let them know where Johnson stands.

On the night of the election, Johnson lost by 22 points, 17 points worse than polling weeks before suggested.

There are a lot of reasons for this massive shift and some of them have to do with Grimes' fundraising and skill as a candidate, but the influence of the New Power PAC was another factor.  The most important factor, though, seems to be that people just plain don't like the idea of taking the right to vote from homeless people or otherwise restricting access to voting.

These election results are a large public mandate against the photo ID voting legislation contemplated for next year's General Assembly and is also an indication of how Kentucky voters feel about proposed legislation to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society (House Bill 70).  It confirms earlier polling data from the UK Survey Research Center that suggests that Kentuckians strongly favor voting rights for former felons.

In short, Kentuckians seem to like to vote in favor of voting... and not against it. 

State legislators would do well to consider these facts when House Bill 70 again comes up for a vote in early 2012.

If there are three people in the state who have been the most active campaigners against broad voting rights in 2011, those people have been Bill Johnson, David Williams, and Damon Thayer.

The first two were dealt crushing defeats on election night by margins of greater than 20%.  The third is up for election next year. 

Starting on January 3rd, KFTC members will be in Frankfort talking to legislators and making the case for restoration of voting rights for former felons who have served their debt to society and will fight against proposed legislation to make our Democracy smaller.  Please plan on coming out to join us in the coming year. 

Joining other chapters throughout the state, Scott County KFTC members have been calling our members to ask them to renew their memberships or make a special donation for our Fall Fundraising Campaign.  As of last week, we've managed to call through our chapter list, plus several other counties. 

Tomorrow night, a few Scott County KFTC members will be joining our allies at the Central KY Chapter to call part of their massive member list.  If you'd like to join us, we'll be at 250 Plaza Dr, Lexington, KY from 6pm to 9pm.

And if you'd like to donate to KFTC right now to help us in our campaign, you can quickly and easily donate online here.

In other Scott County KFTC news, we have a chapter meeting this Thursday at 7pm at the Georgetown Public Library.

Last night, we held our annual Arty Pie Party in Scott County - an event full of great music, fun, local art, delicious pies and just plain good conversation - all to benefit Kentuckians For The Commonwealth.

The event was hosted in the beautiful home of Tim Klarer and Rosanne Fitts Klarer, which is a work of art in itself, built primarily by Tim. 

Many thanks to Tim and Rosanne, plus musicians Jeri Katherine Howell and Jeff Ellis, all of the fantastic artists that donated pieces for the silent auction, all the folks who made pies, and the 80+ folks who came out and/or donated money.  It was a blast!

Oh - and the whip cream on top? - We raised over $2,100 for Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, plus lots of new memberships and membership renewals.

 

And if you want to see even more pictures of the event, including art pieces, etc., visit the collection on our Flickr page. 

Featuring:

- Delicious Pies

- Live Musicians Jeri Katherine Howell and Jeff Ellis

- A Silent Auction of Arts and Crafts

Suggested donation is $25 or a pie.

For more information, click here.

         

KFTC members in Scott County just wrapped up a small phone bank to call local KFTC members and friends and make sure they're all set to vote in the election on Tuesday.  We had a lot of good conversations with people helped them find key information through KetuckyElection.org and also invited them to upcoming events like the Arty Pie Party in one week.

       

Creative and zany KFTC members in the Central KY and Scott County chapters took some time this weekend to visit zombie-related events and bring a spirited voter mobilization message to the community.  Some of them dressed as zombies themselves and at least two tried to eat our literature pieces... but

We passed out a total 2,500 of these handbills calling on people to vote in a tongue-and cheek kind've way.  Folks at the events loved them and we passed out all of the handbills very quickly despite the large numbers of them that we brought out. 

Our friends at Occupy Lexington also used the event to reach people by staging some good street theater and passing out flyers and candy.

The Election is now just 8 days away, but there's still time to learn about the candidates, spread the word, and vote on Nov 8th!

Zombies Can't Vote!

But you CAN!

Don't be a zombie! - learn about the candidates at www.KentuckyElection.org and vote on Tuesday, November 8th.

With Halloween close upon us, there are a lot of big zombie-related shenanigans across the state of Kentucky in the next few days. 

With the election just a couple of days after, we decided to use this opportunity to mobilize voters - and have a lot of fun doing it.  

So members will be at different events, handing out these handbills to encourage people to get out and vote. 

Some of our members will be dressed up as zombies - but zombies shuffle around slowly and people don't readily accept things from them.  So we could use non-zombie volunteers too.

Lexington - Meeting Sunday at 6:30pm at Phoenix Park, with another group meeting at Third Street Stuff at 7pm.  We'll then pass out handbills through the showcase at 7pm at Centrepointe Field and the Thriller Parade beginning at 8:30pm. 

Georgetown - Meeting Saturday at 6:45pm at the Lock and Key on Main Street.  Main St will close at 7pm. Zombies will rise and dance at 8pm.

For more information, call Dave Newton at 859-420-8919.