Is Kentucky law in conflict with its Constitution?
Part 1 of 2 in the Early Voting Series
The board members of Kentucky’s state board of elections, county board of elections and our county clerks have the duty to
Ensure Kentucky’s compliance with federal election law
Ensure Kentucky’s compliance with state election law
Ky’s Constitution states: All regular elections of State, county, city, town, urban-county, or district officers shall be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
I’m not an attorney, but this appears to be in conflict with the Ky law that legalized early voting. There may be a permission in the Ky Revised Statutes I have not discovered.
This dilemma exists in other states. A new lawsuit has been filed in Delaware, for example, to challenge a law allowing mail-in voting and same-day registration.
"When a Delaware statute conflicts with the Constitution of Delaware, the Constitution controls," the complaint notes…
The plain facts are that the Delaware Constitution "requires the general election to be held on one specific day."
That would be, "on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November of the year in which they are to be held, and be by ballot."
Federal law:
Inquiring minds
Why is it that federal law trumped state laws for abortion permission, but state laws are allowed to rule with respect to early voting?
The ‘Supremacy Clause’ of the U.S. Constitution, establishes that federal law generally take precedence over state laws, and even state constitutions. The Wikipedia states: In the United States, Election Day is the annual day set by law for the general elections of federal public officials. It is statutorily set by the Federal Government as "the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November" equaling the Tuesday occurring within November 2 to November 8.
To our credit, Ky held out against early voting until 2020. We succumbed on an emergency basis because of the pandemic. Then, early voting was codified in Ky law in 2021 and further amended in 2022 to reduce some permissions.
The 2021 bill, which pertained to various aspects of elections, was sponsored by a Republican, Rep. Jennifer Decker (R-58), but the amendment to permit early voting was introduced by a Democrat, Buddy Wheatley (D-65), the only Democrat co-sponsor.
The 2022 bill had two Democrat co-sponsors though the primary sponsor was a Republican, Josh Branscum (R-83), and there were three Republican co-sponsors.