The Fellowship of Reconciliation, Louisville Chapter (FOR) asks all of its supporters and allies to vote NO on Amendment 1 and to urge your neighbors and coworkers to Vote NO as well.

Kentucky is one of eight states with a proposed citizenship requirement measure on their ballots this year. Constitutional Amendment 1 on our ballots November 5 would just add this sentence in both Section 145 and Section 155 of the Kentucky Constitution:

 “No person who is not a citizen of the United States shall be allowed to vote in said elections.”

Our Kentucky constitution already says US citizens can vote if they meet age, residency, and other requirements. This amendment would not directly change any current voter registration or voting procedures

Our Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams has said that Kentucky does not have a problem of noncitizens voting. He believes safeguards are in place.

It seems a solution in search of a problem. On that basis alone, it deserves a NO vote.

Dr. Stephen Voss, UK professor recently said “The argument against Amendment 1 is that since noncitizens currently are banned from voting and since there’s not a clear effort on the way to give the right to vote to noncitizens, that the main purpose of an active constitutional block on non-citizens voting is to send a signal against migrants.”

“State leaders who want to show their citizens that they’re doing something about undocumented migration don’t have many tools at their disposal because immigration is typically a federal issue, not a state and local issue,” said Dr. Voss.

Former Kentucky representative Attica Scott is part of a coalition of organizations rallying against Amendment 1, saying it won’t change who votes, but would stoke flames of hate toward immigrants.

“Part of the fear is, now you’ve opened the door to enforcement questions, so will you start asking someone you think is an immigrant or a refugee to show us your papers when you go to vote? It doesn’t make sense to me,” Scott told WDRB.

Amendment 1 could result in encouraging those Kentucky legislators who fear and vilify immigrants to pass legislation requiring physical proof of citizenship to register and vote. The Republican-controlled House in Congress passed just such legislation in July— the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act or the SAVE Act. It failed in the Senate. It may be a model for state legislation coming to Kentucky that would make voter registration more difficult. Here is what it would have mandated:

• individuals must provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship in order to register to vote in elections.
• states could not accept and process an application to register to vote in a federal election unless the applicant presents documentary proof of U.S. citizenship.
• states must deny registration of an individual to vote in a federal election unless, at the time the individual applies to register to vote, the individual provides documentary proof of U.S. citizenship; and (2) states must establish an alternative process under which an applicant may submit other evidence to demonstrate U.S. citizenship.
• Each state must take affirmative steps on an ongoing basis to ensure that only U.S. citizens are registered to vote, which shall include establishing a program to identify individuals who are not U.S. citizens using information supplied by specified sources.
• states must remove noncitizens from their official lists of eligible voters.
• State must allow for a private right of action against an election official who registers an applicant to vote in a federal election who fails to present documentary proof of U.S. citizenship.
• States must establish criminal penalties for certain offenses, including registering an applicant to vote in a federal election who fails to present documentary proof of U.S. citizenship.

Such future legislation could impede voter registration drives by making those trying to register people in their community, legally responsible for authenticating birth certificates. We need to take down barriers to registration and voting, not add to them.

Right now, people in Kentucky just need to sign a registration form, under penalty of perjury, saying they are citizens.

Seems like that is working fine.

Vote NO on Amendment 1.