Kentucky moves to expand voting access in rare bipartisan push

Kentucky state legislators are coming together in a rare bipartisan push to expand access to the ballot box in the midst of a nationwide fight over voting rights and election reforms.

The state Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would create three days of early voting, including the Saturday before an election. It would let counties set up locations where any registered state voter could cast a ballot, and it would create an online portal that voters could use to make sure their ballots are counted.

“We indeed are transforming the way in which we will elect our public officials, and we will ensure the integrity of the ballot to eliminate things like voter fraud, cheating, ballot harvesting and the like,” state Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer (R) said Tuesday.

The measure passed the state Senate in a 33-3 vote. It heads back to the state House, where an earlier version passed with only four legislators voting against it.

“I, for one, was really happy to see the bipartisanship that came through to have Kentucky be a model,” said state Sen. Morgan McGarvey (D), the minority leader.

If the bill passes the House as expected, it would go to Gov. Andy Beshear (D) for his signature.

Though the governor and Republican-controlled legislature have clashed over a host of issues since he took office in 2019, Beshear and Secretary of State Michael Adams (R) worked closely to create emergency voting rules during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement Tuesday, Adams said he was happy with the legislation.

“Mere months ago, no one would have thought that making these election improvements permanent would be possible,” Adams said. “Our legislators deserve enormous credit for making Kentucky’s election system a national model in the 2022 elections and beyond.”

The bipartisan comity stands in sharp contrast to other states, where Democrats are pushing bills to expand access to the ballot box and Republican-controlled legislatures are moving to clamp down on absentee voting, ballot drop-boxes and other avenues of voting that they themselves championed only a few years ago.

The Brennan Center for Justice has tallied 704 bills in state legislatures across the country that would expand access to voting. At the same time, 253 bills that would restrict voting rights have been introduced, and measures are advancing in key swing states such as Arizona and Georgia.