By Tal Axelrod - 04/07/21 02:40 PM EDT
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) signed into law Wednesday a bill that expands voting access, making his state an outlier as others with GOP-held legislatures pass a string of restrictions.
Beshear, who unseated a Republican governor in 2019 and is running for reelection in 2023, signed a measure that will establish three days of early voting, stand up voting centers to provide more options for in-person voting and open a digital portal for voters to register and apply for ballots. It also allows voters to retroactively fix issues with absentee ballots.
Beshear’s signature makes Kentucky the only state in the nation with a legislature run by Republicans to expand voting access.
Kentucky has new laws on election reform, federal stimulus fund spending Share Updated: 11:29 AM EDT Apr 7, 2021
Kentucky has new laws on election reform, federal stimulus fund spending Share Updated: 11:29 AM EDT Apr 7, 2021
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Show Transcript one. Today is a good day. It is a good day for our commonwealth. It s a good day for our country. It s a good day for our souls because today is a day of bipartisan action where we have put disagreements aside and we ve put our people first. Today is the day when I will sign legislation that s going to create tens of thousands of jobs. It s gonna provide clean drinking water all over Kentucky. It s going to upgrade our infrastructure at no cost to our families. It s gonna rebuild the literal building blocks of our schools, and it s going to provide the infrastructure of the future high speed Internet access to all areas of our commonwealth. Today is a good day. Today is also a good day for demo
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Credit Ryan Van Velzer
Kentucky senators stripped the power to issue subpoenas from a bill that would have granted Louisville’s new civilian review board authority to compel testimony and seek discovery as it oversees the city’s police department.
On Tuesday, the Senate Standing Committee on State and Local Government voted 9 to 1 to remove the section from HB 309. Bill co-sponsor Rep. Jason Nemes of Louisville, a Republican, said he believes a compromise could appear as a floor amendment ahead of the bill going to a vote in the Senate, which could happen as soon as Tuesday.
That compromise would have the civilian board to go through a Metro Council committee with the powers necessary to issue subpoenas, and would require the committee to turn over the findings to the board, Nemes said.