(WDRB+WAVE) — As voters gear up for the Nov. 3 election, some may be familiarizing themselves with what’s on their ballots. For Kentucky voters, one ballot question could change the state’s constitution.
Right now, Kentucky’s governor has the ability to grant clemency, or pardons, at any time.
Amendment 1 would put limits on when those pardons could happen, not allowing the commonwealth’s governor to issue them from 60 days before an election through Inauguration Day.
That amendment started with a piece of legislation: Senate Bill 10, which State Sen. Chris McDaniel has introduced several times. It finally got over the finish line last legislative session.
“The only power inside of the justice system that has no check and no balance is the power to pardon,” said McDaniel, who represents District 23. “At the practical level, what I want (voters) to do is just go back in time seven years. You know, just think about the pardons that came out. They were very well covered. Think about how outraged everyone was.”
McDaniel is talking about 2019, when former Gov. Matt Bevin issued more than 400 pardons before he left office after losing a re-election bid to current Gov. Andy Beshear.
The pardons included those convicted of severe crimes, like murder and sexual assault.
“Certainly, Matt Bevin abused the pardon power in terrible ways,” Beshear said Thursday when asked about it during a Team Kentucky update.
Beshear added he doesn’t feel it’s necessary to change the Commonwealth’s constitution based on one person’s actions.
“The answer in this isn’t changing the pardon power for every other governor that hasn’t abused it this way but not electing a guy like Matt Bevin ever again,” Beshear said.
But McDaniel said even though Bevin’s actions made lots of people aware of the governor’s pardoning powers, he believes “bad pardons” have happened at the end of every administration.
He also said the amendment has bipartisan support, and is about accountability at the end of the day.
“The governor or their party will have to stand in front of the voters and account for what they’ve done,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel added that, right now, Kentucky is part of the minority group of states that don’t have any restrictions for their governors’ pardoning powers.