Constitutional amendments posed to Kentucky voters in the last few years have not been particularly successful. Since 2020, two of six proposed amendments have gained approval at the ballot box with several GOP priorities failing — including one enshrining that abortion is not a right and another that would allow state funding for nonpublic education.
That’s all since the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled in 2019 against the “Marsy’s Law” constitutional amendment that put in place a new list of rights for crime victims. Justices unanimously decided that the state constitution is “too important and valuable” to change without the full language being put to the public. The amendment, put before voters in its full form two years later, passed overwhelmingly.
Now, GOP Senate President Robert Stivers of Manchester wants a return to the old system, where sometimes lengthy amendments are boiled down to a question for voters to consider.
“This is what has been done to our constitution up until about six years ago, the way we amend it by ballot question, not by full text,” Stivers said.
His constitutional amendment passed a Senate committee vote Wednesday. It would need to pass both chambers of the General Assembly by a three-fifths majority and then pass at the ballot box.
In the section of the state constitution dealing with amendments, Senate Bill 262 would add that the full text is not required and that a ballot question or summary that “clearly and accurately” describes the “substance and effect” of the amendment is allowed.
Previous GOP attempts to amend the constitution have been quite a bit more lengthy, and proponents say it can cause confusion for voters. For example, Kentucky voters rejected an amendment that would have given the legislature the power to call itself into special session, instead of the governor. It was more than 700 words, took up almost half a page on the ballot and failed in 2022.
However, the length of question isn’t the sole determinant — on the same ballot, a question to clarify there is no right to abortion under the state constitution failed with a concise 52 words.
Sen. Greg Elkins, a Republican from Winchester, said he believes most voters default to a “no” on constitutional amendments, and they need to understand the language in order to change to a “yes.”
“I would argue that the way we're doing them now, it's almost impossible to pass a constitutional amendment no matter how good it may be,” Elkins said.
Kentucky has successfully passed two amendments since the requirement for full text: the second attempt to pass Marsy’s Law by putting the full text on the ballot and another further prohibiting local governments from allowing noncitizens to vote, which opponents argued was already the case.
Democratic Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong of Louisville voted no on the bill, saying it doesn’t spell out who gets to decide what counts as a clear and accurate summary of the amendment.
“I believe there's a role in elections for proponents and opponents to give their own summaries, and sometimes people have differing interpretations,” Armstrong said.
Different states have their own rules on how constitutional amendments can appear on their ballots. In Florida, which allows both legislature-led and citizen-driven ballot initiatives, the summaries on the ballot can’t be longer than 75 words. In Kentucky, constitutional amendments can only be proposed and put on the ballot by lawmakers.
