CATHOLIC
CONFERENCE
OF KENTUCKY
1042 Burlington Lane (| Frankfort, KY 40601 1 (502)875-4345 [] FAX: (502)875-2841 0 www.ccky.org
TESTIMONY OFFERED IN SUPPORT OF BR 1
AN ACT proposing an amendment to Section 145 of the Constitution of Kentucky relating to persons entitled
to vote.
September 22 2009 — House Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, for the record my name is Rev. Patrick Delahanty. I am deeply
grateful for the opportunity to appear before you today. I am here to represent the Catholic Conference of Kentucky,
the policy arm of Kentucky’s four Roman Catholic bishops. The bishops appreciate the past support of this
legislation in the House and hope that during your next session both chambers support this measure to let voters in
Kentucky have their say on this important public policy issue.
In 2005 Kentucky’s Catholic bishops issued a pastoral statement on Crime and Criminal Justice in which they urged
that Kentucky's public policy about voting be changed so that the right to vote would be automatically restored for
former offenders who completed all the conditions of punishment imposed by the court.
It is the belief of the Catholic church that God grants all of us human dignity and because of this there flows various
rights and obligations. With regard to participation in the public life of the community — in our towns, cities, states
and nation - our Catechism teaches that exercising the right to vote is a sacred obligation and a moral obligation. Not
to vote when one can in our view is actually sinful.
We believe the state should be promoting citizen participation in the public life of the community, not creating
barriers to prevent a citizen — including a citizen who has a felony conviction - from having ready access to the
ballot box. Our country’s history on this matter is one of progressively expanding access to the ballot and tearing
down barriers that kept citizens from voting: non-property owners, women, people of color and minorities. On this
matter of disenfranchisement of those who have committed felonies the same pattern can be seen, so that now
Kentucky is one of only two states, Virginia being the other, that permanently denies people with felony convictions
the right to vote UNLESS government (in our case the Governor) approves restoration.
Kentucky’s current constitution does, in our opinion, create unnecessary barriers preventing former felons from
voting. While it is true that the governor, upon request, may restore that right, we believe that this practice, though
well-intentioned, ends up being arbitrary as indicated by the data available from the Department of Corrections and
the Secretary of State. In addition, with a backlog of more than 100,000 already disenfranchised, and with the
increase in the number of felony crimes and incarceration rates in the past twenty or thirty years in Kentucky, it is
time we make automatic the restoration of this right so that those returning to our community can demonstrate their
commitment to becoming law-abiding citizens and feel they have a stake in their future. We require them to pay
taxes. We should also allow them to vote for those who create those tax laws.
Finally, we accept the results of studies that have found a correlation between voting and recidivism. Though this
research is limited, it does find that former felons allowed to vote have significantly lower re-incarceration rates.
That is a practical benefit to all Kentuckians and in our common interest.
Because our current practice of withholding the right to vote permanently, unless approved by a governor,
unnecessarily prevents former offenders from exercising a moral obligation to participate in the public life of his or
her community, because this practice appears to be arbitrary, and because there is evidence that those who are no
longer disenfranchised and can vote do not re-offend, we urge you to support BR 1.
The Catholic Conference of Kentucky (CCK) is an agency of the Catholic Bishops of Kentucky, established in
1968. It speaks for the Church in matters of public policy, serves as liaison to government and the legislature, and
coordinates communications and activities between the church and secular agencies. There are 406,000 Catholics
in the Commonwealth. The Bishops of the four dioceses of KY constitute CCK's Board of Directors.
