Kentucky 2025 Regular Session

Kentucky House Bill HB246 Latest Draft

Bill / Introduced Version

                            UNOFFICIAL COPY  	25 RS BR 1306 
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AN ACT proposing to amend Section 145 of the Constitution of Kentucky relating 1 
to persons entitled to vote. 2 
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky: 3 
Section 1.   Are you in favor of amending Section 145 of the Constitution of 4 
Kentucky to prohibit persons adjudged mentally incompetent by a court from voting as 5 
stated below? 6 
Section 2.   It is proposed that Section 145 of the Constitution of Kentucky be 7 
amended to read as follows: 8 
 Every citizen of the United States of the age of eighteen years who has resided in 9 
the state one year, and in the county six months, and the precinct in which he or she 10 
offers to vote sixty days next preceding the election, shall be a voter in said precinct and 11 
not elsewhere. No person who is not a citizen of the United States shall be allowed to 12 
vote in this state. The following persons also shall not have the right to vote: 13 
 1. Persons convicted in any court of competent jurisdiction of treason, or felony, 14 
or bribery in an election, or of such high misdemeanor as the General Assembly may 15 
declare shall operate as an exclusion from the right of suffrage, but persons hereby 16 
excluded may be restored to their civil rights by executive pardon. 17 
 2. Persons who, at the time of the election, are in confinement under the 18 
judgment of a court for some penal offense. 19 
 3. Persons who have been adjudged mentally incompetent by a court[Idiots 20 
and insane persons]. 21 
Section 3. This amendment shall be submitted to the voters of the 22 
Commonwealth for their ratification or rejection at the time and in the manner provided 23 
for under Sections 256 and 257 of the Constitution, KRS 118.415, and Sections 4 and 5 24 
of this Act. 25 
Section 4.   Notwithstanding any provision of KRS 118.415 to the contrary, the 26 
Secretary of State shall cause the entirety of the question in Section 1 of this Act and the 27  UNOFFICIAL COPY  	25 RS BR 1306 
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entirety of the proposed amendment to the Constitution of Kentucky contained in Section 1 
2 of this Act to be published at least one time in a newspaper of general circulation 2 
published in this state, and shall also cause to be published at the same time and in the 3 
same manner the fact that the amendment will be submitted to the voters for their 4 
acceptance or rejection at the next regular election at which members of the General 5 
Assembly are to be voted for. The publication required by this section and KRS 118.415 6 
shall be made no later than the first Tuesday in August preceding the election at which 7 
the amendment is to be voted on. 8 
Section 5.   Notwithstanding any provision of KRS 118.415 to the contrary, the 9 
Secretary of State, not later than the second Monday after the second Tuesday in August 10 
preceding the next regular election at which members of the General Assembly are to be 11 
chosen in a year in which there is not an election for President and Vice President of the 12 
United States, or not later than the Thursday after the first Tuesday in September 13 
preceding a regular election in a year in which there is an election for President and Vice 14 
President of the United States, shall certify the entirety of the question in Section 1 of this 15 
Act and the entirety of the proposed amendment to the Constitution of Kentucky 16 
contained in Section 2 of this Act to the county clerk of each county, and the county clerk 17 
shall have the entirety of the question and the amendment, as so certified, indicated on 18 
the ballots provided to the voters in paper or electronic form as applicable to the voting 19 
machines in use in each county or precinct. 20