Frankfort, Ky. (March 8, 2021) U.S. Senator Rand Paul has announced his strong support of Kentucky House Bill 574, a wide-ranging election reform measure that enhances both voter access and election integrity.
“I am proud of the efforts of Jennifer Decker and her colleagues in the Kentucky State House for taking on the challenges of ensuring our elections are accurate and accessible,” said Senator Paul. “I hope the General Assembly will see this through and that the State Senate will also support the effort to ensure Kentucky’s elections will always have integrity.”
State Rep. Jennifer Decker (R-Waddy), a former staffer for Senator Paul, is the measure’s lead sponsor. The bill’s provisions include:
• Creating three days of early in-person voting, including a Saturday, with no excuse required
• Enhancing the ability of state election officials to remove nonresident voters from the voter rolls
• Transitioning toward universal paper ballots, statewide
• Permitting counties to establish vote centers, where any voter in the county may vote regardless of precinct
• Keeping the online voter portal, so absentee balloting is fully transparent both to voters and election officials
• Expressly prohibiting and penalizing ballot harvesting
• 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
The bill passed the House by a 93-4 vote on February 26 and awaits consideration in the Senate.
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