FRANKFORT, Ky. — Voters in Kentucky have passed Constitutional Amendment 1, which prohibits anyone who is not a U.S. citizen from being allowed to vote in the Commonwealth.
While federal law already makes it a criminal offense for non-citizens 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 the Kentucky Constitution explicitly states that non-citizens are not allowed to vote.
Specifically, this line will be added now that Amendment 1 has passed: "No person who is not a citizen of the United States shall be allowed to vote in this state."
Amendment 1 had overwhelming support from the GOP, while others noted that the language felt redundant due to state and federal voting requirements.
Our partners at LEX 18 News spoke to state Rep. Michael Meredith, who sponsored the amendment in the Kentucky House. He said the reason for what might appear to be a redundant change is to stop non-citizens from voting in local races, like for school boards.
"Not in state elections, not in federal elections, but they're doing it at the local level — voting in local elections," Meredith said. "They're voting in school board elections."
This is what Section 145 of the Constitution of Kentucky will say:
Every citizen of the United States of the age of eighteen years who has resided in the state one year, and in the county six months, and the precinct in which he or she offers to vote sixty days next preceding the election, shall be a voter in said precinct and not elsewhere. No person who is not a citizen of the United States shall be allowed to vote in this state. The following persons also shall not have the right to vote:
1. Persons convicted in any court of competent jurisdiction of treason, or felony, or bribery in an election, or of such high misdemeanor as the General Assembly may declare shall operate as an exclusion from the right of suffrage, but persons hereby excluded may be restored to their civil rights by executive pardon.
2. Persons who, at the time of the election, are in confinement under the judgment of a court for some penal offense.
3. Idiots and insane persons.
Section 155 will also be amended to say:
The provisions of Sections 145 to 154, inclusive, shall not apply to the election of school trustees and other common school district elections. Said elections shall be regulated by the General Assembly, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution. No person who is not a citizen of the United States shall be allowed to vote in said elections.
Find the latest general election results from Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana here.
