AMAC members flooded the Kentucky state Senate with telephone calls in early March to tell their Senators to vote for H.B. 574, the most significant election reform law introduced since 1891. The voice of AMAC was heard as the Senate passed the bill with amendments which then passed the Kentucky House and was ultimately signed into law by Governor Andy Beshear on April 7, 2021.
Included among the reforms enacted are these significant provisions that will strengthen election integrity:
- Enhancing the ability of state election officials to remove nonresident voters from the voter rolls
- Transitioning toward universal paper ballots, statewide
- Keeping the online voter portal so absentee balloting is fully transparent both to voters and election officials
- Expressly prohibiting and penalizing ballot trafficking
- Retaining the signature cure process, so absentee voters whose signatures have changed over time have a chance to prove identity and have their ballots counted
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams commended the Kentucky General Assembly for working across party lines to get the reforms passed and thanked the Governor for signing the package, saying, “I’m grateful to Governor Beshear for signing this bill, which will make our elections both more accessible and more secure at the same time. While other states are caught up in the partisan division, Kentucky is leading the nation in making it both easier to vote and harder to cheat.”