There is no truly justifiable reason—beyond a bid to limit free elections—to do away with early voting in Kentucky. The public servants we elected have no right to disenfranchise the very people they called upon to elect them in the first place.
Yet Senate Bill 61 will do just that: Remove Kentucky’s nationally applauded three-day early voting period in favor of one-day elections. Secretary of State Michael Adams (R) expanded early voting in 2021 but now predicts many early voters from 2023—about 20% of the total, as his office reported—will simply not show up, given the expected long lines and general mayhem or the inability to get to the polls on a workday.
He’s right.
One can’t help but wonder if that’s not the point of SB 61. Of course, no politician would dare admit that aloud. Instead, the bill’s lead sponsor Sen. John Schickel (R) threw out words like “sacred” and “privilege” and “awesome responsibility.” He spoke of voting becoming too much a convenience, too casual, and thus an “afterthought” for many voters, creating a lack of civic engagement.