Introduction: There Must Be Something in the Water - Or the Bourbon - In Kentucky: Voting Rights in the Bluegrass State
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Kentucky Law Journal
VOLUME 111 2022-2023 NUMBER 4
ARTICLES
INTRODUCTION: THERE MUST BE SOMETHING IN THE
WATER-OR THE BOURBON-IN KENTUCKY:
VOTING RIGHTS IN THE BLUEGRASS STATE
Joshua A. Douglas*
Kentucky is best known for three things: horses, bourbon, and basketball. Add
positive improvements for the right to vote to the list.
The Bluegrass state has made national news in recent years for its election rules.
In 2020, many people in the media and advocacy world pointed to Kentucky as a
model for administering an election during the COVID-19 pandemic.2 Under a
bipartisan agreement between the Democratic Governor and Republican Secretary
of State, Kentucky initially postponed the 2020 primary to provide for additional
planning time.' Then it implemented smart rules to ease access to vote-by-mail and
made in-person voting safer and more convenient, while still ensuring integrity in
the process.4 The Secretary of State also led a bipartisan group of legislators on a
compromise voter ID law, which is among the mildest of the stricter photo ID laws
in the country.5 In 2021, when many conservative-controlled states were curtailing
the right to vote, Kentucky enacted a bipartisan election reform measure that
increased early voting, permitted voters to request an absentee ballot online, and
made permanent the ability of counties to use vote centers for in-person voting,
Ashland, Inc.-Spears Distinguished Research Professor of Law, University of Kentucky J. David
Rosenberg College of Law. Thanks to Jackson Hurst-Sanders, Holly Couch, and the other members of the
Kentucky Law Journal for hosting a wonderful symposium. Thanks also to Hayden Hickey and the entire
KLJ team for excellent editing.
2 See, e.g., Carrie Levine, Tight Deadline, Savvy Pitch: How One Red State Expanded Access to the Ballot,
CTR. FOR PUB. INtEGRTY (May 11, 2021), https-/publicintegrity.org/politics/elections/ballotboxbaniers/tight-
deadline-savvy-pitch-kentucky-expanded-access-election-ballot/ [https//perma.cc/YJ5K-ZGBA] (Kentucky-
one of the most restrictive states in the nation on voter access-was suddenly a national model for how to run an
election during a pandemic, minor hiccups aside.).
s See Daniel Desrochers, Kentucky's Primary Election Pushed Back Until June amid COVID-19
Outbreak, LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER (Mar. 16, 2020), https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-
govemment/article241243426.html_[https://perma.cc/8DLD-2AWT].
4 Governor Beshear, Secretary of State Adams Reach Agreement on General Election
Procedures, KENTUCKY.GOV, (Aug. 14, 2020), https://www.kentucky.gov/Pages/Activity-
stream.aspx?n=GovernorBeshear&prld=309_[https://perma.cc/9M94-438X].
5 See Joshua A. Douglas, How the Sausage Gets Made: Voter ID and Deliberative
Democracy, 100 NEB. L. REV. 376, 378 (2021).
581](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/kentlj111&div=26&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Introduction: There Must Be Something in the Water - Or the Bourbon - In Kentucky: Voting Rights in the Bluegrass State
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