Kentucky's Amendment 1 may not be getting much press because many hear the proposal and wonder if the new language actually changes anything. Here's the text it adds to the state constitution: "no person who is not a citizen of the United States shall be allowed to vote in this state."
Now if you're thinking that's already the case, University of Kentucky election law professor Joshua Douglas says... you're right.
"If you vote yes, non-citizens won't be allowed to vote. If you vote no, non-citizens won't be allowed to vote and so nothing changes with respect to the ability currently of non-citizens to vote," he says.
With that being the case, voters could be forgiven for viewing the language as mostly symbolic, but you might have caught one important word in there — "currently." Douglas says the passage of Amendment 1 could have effects down the road.
Under the current language in the constitution, "The General Assembly someday could say, you know what, we want to allow cities in the state to decide for themselves whether or non-citizens should be allowed to vote legally in school board elections or all local elections."
And that has happened — in Maryland, Vermont, California, and elsewhere.
So another way of wording Amendment 1 could be this: It precludes future state leaders in Kentucky from voting to enfranchise non-citizens in some or all local elections.
That's one practical effect. The second, Douglas says, is that it could play a role in how court interpret questions surrounding voting laws in Kentucky.
"State courts in Kentucky could look at that — and I'm not saying they definitely would — but they could look at that and say, OK, the protection for voting rights in the state constitution has been slightly weakened," he notes.
Finally, where would Amendment 1 put Kentucky nationally?
The short answer is that the commonwealth would be in a relatively small but quickly growing minority. Since 2020, six states have added similar language to their constitutions. Arizona already had. That makes seven states in total at the moment.
This year, Kentucky is one of eight additional states weighing the change.
