FRANKFORT — The Rev. Rich Gianzero told a small crowd in the Capitol Annex that he’s a “second-class citizen” under current Kentucky’s voting laws.  Gianzero, a Lutheran pastor and executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, said that because of an out-of-state felony convic tion he got at 16, he cannot vote in Kentucky.  “I was a prisoner, and I served my sentence and was released, and my sentence continues on beyond the sentence that the judiciary gave me,” he said during a League of Women Voters of Kentucky luncheon Tuesday.  Gianzero recounted how, as an “angry teenage boy,” he stole a gun and went to New York with other friends to meet someone else. During the drive, his car broke down and the group carjacked two men, who Gianzero shot. He said he was grateful that they did not die, and he went to prison in New York.  “At what point in time have we served enough time?” he said. “Now we’re in the 250th year of this experiment, fraught with all kinds of peoples and persons who are second-class citizens. The one thing we were told was no taxation without representation. Who represents me?”  According to The Sentencing Project, which advocates for humane responses to crime to minimize imprisonment, more than 150,000 Kentuckians with felony convictions cannot vote despite a 2019 executive order from Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. That order restored the right to vote to more than 140,000 Kentuckians who have completed sentences for nonviolent offenses at the time.  “This issue is not abstract. It affects real people, people we’ve heard from today, coworkers, parents, veterans, church members. It affects people who are trying to move forward,” said Nicole Porter, the senior director of advocacy for The Sentencing Project, during the luncheon. By not allowing thousands of Kentuckians to vote, that “disenfranchisement extends punishment beyond the courtroom and beyond incarceration,” she said.  “It tells someone that no matter how hard they work to rebuild their life, they may never fully belong, and that is a problem if stakeholders, from lawmakers to advocates, want to keep communities safe,” Porter said.  The Sentencing Project has found that giving Americans who have been incarcerated the right to vote can lead to lower rates of recidivism. Porter said by allowing such civic participation, people are more likely to feel invested in their communities and have their voices heard and represented.  Porter told the crowd that she hoped “sustained advocacy” on restoring voting rights could bolster a future governor to take action on the issue, but there is also the risk of Beshear’s successors rescinding the executive order. The next gubernatorial election is in 2027.  The best option in Porter’s view would be a constitutional amendment that puts such voting rights into law. Kentucky lawmakers must approve legislation to put proposed amendments on the ballot.  “This change should be enshrined in the Kentucky Constitution, and Kentucky should remove the unnecessary barriers to all residents with felony convictions, regardless of incarceration status, because democracy should not be about exclusion in spite of that history in the United States,” she said. “It should be about participation.”  Two senators, Republican Jimmy Higdon, of Lebanon, and Democrat Keturah Herron, of Louisville, have filed Senate Bill 80 this legislative session to propose a constitutional amendment to restore the right to vote to Kentuckians with some felony convictions, barring election fraud, a criminal offense against a child, violent offenses or sexual offenses. The senators discussed the bill during the interim session last year.   In the House, Democratic Reps. George Brown Jr., of Lexington, and Beverly Chester-Burton, of Shively, have filed a similar measure, House Bill 420.  The League of Women Voters of Kentucky adopted a statement on the restoration of voting rights in September that would support suspending or eliminating someone’s right to vote only in cases where they have been convicted of treason, bribery in an election or election fraud; while being incarcerated for a felony offense: or if the person had been determined to be mentally incompetent by a court.  “Any person not falling within the parameters of these three conditions shall not have their freedom to vote taken away,” the League’s statement said.  Scottie Ellis, a spokesperson for Beshear, told the Lantern that his 2019 executive order has restored the right to vote to nearly 200,000 people.  “This was a promise the governor kept because his faith teaches him forgiveness and that there is power in second chances,” she said. “It represents the most significant restoration by any Kentucky governor by far.”  Ellis added that the executive order excluded some crimes from voter rights restoration — treason; bribery in an election; and violent offenses, including all rapes and sexual abuses, homicide, first and second-degree assault and assault under extreme emotional disturbance. Kentuckians can submit an application for individual voter rights restoration at civilrightsrestoration.ky.gov. The post Kentuckians who have served time for felonies should have right to vote, advocates say appeared first on The Lexington Times. ...read more read less