Kentucky election years would change under GOP legislation

FRANKFORT – Kentucky’s crowded election schedule could be streamlined under a bill that has already advanced through a committee and the Senate floor.

Senate Bill 10, sponsored by Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ryland Heights, would allow voters to decide whether to amend the Kentucky Constitution so that elections for statewide offices are held in the same year as presidential elections.

Currently, elections for statewide offices are held the year before presidential candidates are on the ballot. If Kentucky voters approved the proposed amendment, statewide officials elected in 2027 would remain in office for five years, until the 2032 election, before shifting back to four-year terms.

The bill was approved by the state Senate on Jan. 17 on a 26-9 vote, and McDaniel said he's optimistic it'll find enough support in the House to make it to the ballot.

McDaniel said the measure is needed because Kentuckians are suffering from election — and campaign ad — fatigue. Holding state and national elections at the same time would increase voter participation, McDaniel said.

The measure would also save the state an estimated $2 million, McDaniel said, and the Legislative Research Commission previously found local governments could save up to $13.5 million in years when a primary and general election would no longer take place.

Democrats pushed back on the proposal. Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville, said the framers of Kentucky’s 1851 Constitution developed the election schedule so people could focus on state-related issues during the statewide races without the interference of national politics.

“Nowadays with national division with presidential elections lasting for years and eating up the airwaves, I think it's really important that the people of Kentucky have space to focus on Kentucky issues,” Armstrong said.

Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said early in the session he's seen similar measures fall short in the legislature, but he understands the line of thinking behind it. Holding fewer elections would save money for the state, he said, and he has a "gut feeling" it would increase turnout. He spoke in favor of it when it reached the Senate floor on Jan. 17.

There’s no guarantee McDaniel’s bill will cross the legislative finish line this session. When he proposed a similar bill in 2020, it gained Senate approval but never got a vote in the House.

House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, said after the Senate vote that there are "pretty strong opinions" in his chamber about the legislation and it hasn't passed in previous years, but House members will soon "start having those conversations with the caucus and try to get the pulse of it."

Stephen Voss, a professor of political science at the University of Kentucky, said it’s “no surprise” Kentucky Republicans want to alter the state’s election schedule. That’s because Republicans tend to do well in national elections.

But while state Republicans tend to draw more votes in national election years, that may not be true for all Republicans, Voss said. Some GOP candidates may have an easier time in non-national election years because of the nature of their appeal to voters, he said.

In addition, Republicans may want to focus its attention on other constitutional amendments that are more pressing or prevent voter fatigue around ballot measures, Voss said. Under Kentucky law, the state legislature may only put up to four proposed amendments on any one ballot.

But even if the measure gains legislative approval this year, Voss said, there's no guarantee Kentucky voters would approve it at the ballot box in November. Voters have declined to approve many past Republican-backed constitutional measures, including two 2022 proposals that would have allowed the legislature to call a special session without the governor's approval and would have eliminated the right to abortion from the state constitution.

Legislators have filed a number of other election bills as well.

Absentee voting and Election Day hours

Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, has proposed legislation that would eliminate Kentucky's no-excuse in-person absentee voting.

Senate Bill 61, which has been referred to the chamber's State & Local Government committee, would also ensure excused in-person absentee voting would take place at least 13 days before an election. The bill has four other Republican co-sponsors.

Additionally, Rep. Chad Aull, D-Lexington, filed House Bill 151, an effort to keep polls open on Election Day until 7 p.m. Polls currently close at 6 p.m.

Aull also filed legislation to add Kentucky to a list of states that would pledge their electoral votes in a presidential election to the candidate who receives the most votes nationally (House Bill 153). Seventeen other states have passed similar measures.

Aull and Sen. Adrienne Southworth, R-Lawrenceburg, have each filed bills in their respective chambers that would remove straight-ticket voting options on ballots.

Voting systems and IDs

Southworth has filed six other bills aimed at changing election laws. One would require the state to use only voting systems with parts manufactured in the U.S. Another would disallow the use of university ID cards as voter identification. Others would change the procedures around counting and auditing votes.

Voting audits

Sen. John Hodgson, R-Fisherville, filed House Bill 53, which would require Kentucky's attorney general or a designee to randomly select at least one ballot scanner and one race tabulated on that scanner in all 120 counties for a hand-eye recount. Discrepancies found could lead to an investigation until the reason behind it is discovered and resolved, with a report given to the attorney general.

Reach Rebecca Grapevine at rgrapevine@courier-journal.com. Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@courier-journal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky election schedule could get reboot under Senate Bill 10