Kentucky League of Women Voters

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Please join us for LWV Lobby Day in Frankfort Wednesday, February 15, 2012

9:30 a.m. Meet in Capitol Annex Cafeteria (basement)
11:30 a.m. Lunch with Rep. Ruth Ann Palumbo (Rm 370B)

Call your legislators (1-502-564-8100) as soon as possible to make appointments between 10:00 and 11:30 a.m. or after 12:30 to talk with them about the bills the League is supporting including:
HB 167 – Energy Bill,
SB 230 – Clean Elections
HB70 – Felon’s Voting Rights

Please Register and give us your lunch preference no later than Feb 10 by e-mailing or calling Nita Smith at nitavotes@aol.com or 859-272-5827.

Box lunches (sandwich, fruit, chips, cookie & drink) are available for $7.95 (cash only please) Options: Sandwiches: Chicken salad, Tuna salad, Pimento cheese, Turkey, Ham, BLT wrap, Fried chicken wrap, Grilled chicken wrap or Veggie wrap. Drinks: Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Mellow Yellow, water.

Grab your LWV pin and join us!

Update on HB 70 – The Former Felons Voting Rights Bill
The League of Women Voters of Kentucky is again supporting Representative Crenshaw’s bill, HB 70, which would allow the voters of Kentucky to decide if former felons, who have paid their debt to society, should automatically have their voting rights restored. On January 24, TeenaHalbig, a former president of the League, testified in support of the bill. She suggested that one of the ways we reintegrate former felons into the community, is to allow them the most basic right of citizenship, that of the right to vote.
To enhance voting, the League makes these recommendations
• A ballot measure to consider amending the KY Constitution so that people living in the community and who have completed their sentence have their voting rights restored automatically. Allow the public vote on this issue.
• Inform prisoners about the process to apply and offer technical help with accessing records.
• Three months prior to completion of sentence, provide assistance (by volunteers from organizations or by current employees)
• Provide public education from by the Secretary of State’s office, the Department of Corrections, or Office of the Courts about registering to vote after rights are restored.
On January 24 the bill was voted favorably out of Committee with bipartisan support. The bill is expected to come up for a full vote of the House very soon.
Take Action!
Call the Legislative Message Line (1-800-372-7181) as soon as possible and leave a message for your legislator. The line is open from 7 am to 11 pm on weekdays and until 6 pm on Fridays. The operator will ask for your name and address.

Message: “Please vote yes on House Bill 70.”
Thank you for supporting this bill.

Pendleton County League of Women Voters Registers First Time Voters

Pendleton County League of Women Voters President Shawn Nordheim, Secretary Melissa Miller and Treasurer Wendy Harrison recently registered Pendleton County High School students to vote. The voter registration event occurred during lunchtime on May 23 at the high school. Thirty students became new registered voters.

Consistently, fewer eligible young Pendleton County citizens are registered to vote than that of any other age group. Of those young citizens who are registered to vote, the majority do not take advantage of the opportunity to do so.

Voter registration is one of the key activities of the Pendleton County League. The league will work to register not only young citizens but also all age groups of citizens who are not registered to vote. To register to vote in Kentucky, one must be at least 18 years of age by the next election, must be a citizen of the U.S. and a resident of the state.

The League plans both annual fall and spring voter registration drives to register as many new voters as possible.

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League of Women Voters of Kentucky April 2011 e-Voter

 Presidents’ Message

This is the last e-Voter Nita and I will be sending as the co-presidents of the League of Women Voters of Kentucky.  Our term was finished at Convention on April 9^th.  We thank everyone who helped make this last year a success for the League.  Our local Leagues facilitated many forums for candidates running for office.  You answered many “Calls to Action” from both National and the State League.  Many of you joined Nita and I in Frankfort to lobby our representatives for our positions on specific legislation.  You also joined us in Frankfort on Women’s Suffrage Day, which commemorated the 90^th anniversary of finally obtaining the vote.

A highlight of our term was the fundraiser we had at Terry’s house which featured Joel Pett, the Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist.  He showed us the method he uses to draw our current politicians and also a little bit of his own political philosophy.  We raised enough money at the fundraiser to pay for two months rent for our Frankfort office, thanks to your generosity.

We decided to try a one-day Convention this year.  Most of the 38 delegates we asked said they preferred this new format.  At Convention we decided to conduct two studies, one on funding the juvenile drug court and the other on civics education in Kentucky schools –two topics of great interest to most of us.

We also voted for officers for the next term.  Happily, our three vice presidents, Cindy Heine, Tammy Fagley, and Cecile Schubert, our secretary, Nicole George and our treasurer, Steve Senft, all agreed to take another term.  The only position left open is that of President.  The three vice presidents will fulfill the president’s duties until a new president is recommended by the Nominating Committee.

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At convention, we formally adopted two studies:
A study of the federal role in public education. The study will focus on the role of federal government in education policymaking, with possible consideration of funding, common standards and/or governance relationships among all levels of government.
A study on privatization: The policy agenda to transfer government functions, services, and assets to the private sector.
The convention adopted by concurrence the following positions:
An updated arms control position.
We added this statement to the position on the selection of the president: “We support the use of the National Popular Vote Compact as one acceptable way to achieve the goal of the direct popular vote for election of the president until the abolition of the Electoral College is accomplished.”
“The LWVUS supports legislation to equalize the legal rights, obligations, and benefits available to same-gender couples to marry under civil law. The League believes that the civil status of marriage is already clearly distinguished from the religious institution of marriage and that religious rights will be preserved.”
To read our entire report from the National Convention, held in Atlanta in June, please access our Summer 2010 e-Voter under the tab entitled “NEWSLETTERS.”

House Bill 70, which allows a change in the Kentucky Constitution to permit former felons to automatically have their right to vote returned to them as soon as they pay their debt to society, did not become law this past session.  Even though the bill passed the House with little trouble, it never got a hearing in the Senate.  This happened to many worthwhile bills.  Time ran out and the session ended.  Our coalition, which supports automatically giving back the right to vote to former felons who have paid their debt to society, is already making plans for the next legislative session.  We hope to have a new version of HB 70 ready for the next legislative session.  

However, if you are former felon and do not want to wait for the Kentucky legislature to act, you can apply for a partial pardon from the Governor under the law as it reads today, by first requesting restoration of your civil rights.  This is done by filling out a one-page form, sent to you by the Division of Probation and Parole.  The addrss is: Department of Corrections, Division of Probation & Parole, PO Box 2400, Frankfort, KY 40602-2400.  Attn: Restoration of Civil Rights.  It takes about two months for processing.  The former felon will get a certificate in the mail, which states that he/she has his/her right tovote restored plus a voter registration card.  When the voter registration card is filled out and sent to the County Clerk of the district in which the former felon lives, he/she can vote.

Representative Ruth Ann Palumbo introduced a Resolution in the House, which celebrates the 90th anniversary of the League of Women Voters in Kentucky.  It was read on March 10 in the House chamber.  Nita Smith and Terry Naydan, Co-Presidents of the League of Women Voters of Kentucky, were in attendance when the Resolution was read by the clerk of the House.  The resolution read:

A RESOLUTION congratulating the League of Women Voters on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of founding, and adjourning the House of Representatives in its honor:

WHEREAS,  the League of Women Voters was founded in 1920, mere months before the Nineteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution was ratified, and women across the nation gained the right of suffrage; and

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