Voters approve Kentucky Amendment 1 ballot measure

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Kentucky voters passed Constitutional amendment 1which prohibits anyone who is not a U.S. citizen from voting in the Commonwealth.

While federal law already makes it a crime for noncitizens to vote in presidential elections and Kentucky requires registered voters to be citizens who have lived in the state for at least 28 days before Election Day, Amendment 1 was placed on the ballot to ensure that the Kentucky Constitution explicitly states that non-citizens are not allowed to vote.

Specifically, this line will be added now that Amendment 1 has been passed: “No person who is not a citizen of the United States shall vote in this State.”

Amendment 1 received overwhelming support from the Republican Party, while others noted that the language seemed redundant due to state and federal voting requirements.

Our partners at LEX 18 News spoke with State Rep. Michael Meredith, who sponsored the amendment in the Kentucky House. He said the reason for what may seem like an unnecessary change is to discourage noncitizens from voting in local races, such as for school boards.

“Not in state elections, not in federal elections, but they do it at the local level – voting in local elections,” Meredith said. “They vote in school board elections.”

This is what Section 145 of the Kentucky Constitution will say:

Every citizen of the United States eighteen years of age who has resided one year in the state and six months in the county, and in the county in which he or she offers to vote sixty days previous to the election, shall be an elector. in the said district and not elsewhere. No person who is not a citizen of the United States may vote in this state. The following persons also do not have voting rights:

1. Persons convicted by a competent court of treason, crime or bribery in elections, or of such serious offense as the General Assembly may declare, shall be disqualified from voting, but persons hereby excluded may be excluded. their civil rights restored through executive pardons.

2. Persons who, at the time of the election, are in custody for any criminal offense on the basis of a court judgment.

3. Idiots and insane persons.

Section 155 will also be amended to say:

The provisions of Sections 145 through 154 shall not apply to the election of school board members and other regular elections of school districts. These elections are regulated by the General Meeting, unless otherwise provided in these Articles of Association. No person who is not a citizen of the United States may vote in said election.

Find the latest general election results from Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana here.