Kentucky polling place
Credit: kentuckytoday.com

Last month, Kentucky elected Democratic governor Andy Beshear in a closely watch election – a landmark blue win in a mostly conservative state. One of the core promises of his campaign was to restore voting rights to 140,000 people with felony convictions, which he fulfilled immediately after taking office.

Weeks after Beshear issued his historic executive order, however, Kentucky Republicans have proposed a restrictive new bureaucratic hurdle that will likely make it more difficult for minorities and students in the state to vote.

The timing of the bill, which mandates that voters carry an identification card with a photo, is significant: Republicans made it a legislative priority and want it to be in effect for the 2020 general election. This is also the election when Republican senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader and a senior face of the establishment GOP, will run in a nationally-watched re-election fight.

Kentucky already requires voter ID at the polls, but the new policy would take this a step […]