Frankfort, Ky. (March 16, 2021) –Secretary of State Michael Adams thanked the Kentucky Senate for passing House Bill 574, an act that puts historic election reforms – implemented on a temporary basis last year – on the cusp of becoming law permanently.
“I’m grateful to our state senators for putting voters first,” Adams said. “Mere months ago, no one would have thought that making these election improvements permanent would be possible. Our legislators deserve enormous credit for making Kentucky’s election system a national model in the 2022 elections and beyond.”
House Bill 574 includes:
- 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
- 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 now heads back to the House for concurrence in minor amendments made by the Senate.