LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Kentucky voters have rejected a wordy constitutional amendment that would have given the GOP-dominated legislature powers currently reserved for the governor.
Amendment 1 was the more arcane of the two constitutional amendments on the ballot this year in Kentucky. The other, which voters also rejected, would have clarified that there is no constitutional right to have an abortion in Kentucky.
Amendment 1 failed with 54% of voters rejecting the change, according to results posted to the Secretary of State's website on Wednesday, with 105 of 120 counties reporting their tallies.
An outgrowth of the three-year power struggle between Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and the Republican-dominated legislature, the amendment would have given the legislature the power to call itself into a special legislative session. Under current law, only a governor can convene the legislature outside of its normal sessions held early each year.
The impetus for the amendment was Beshear’s COVID-19 executive orders restricting business hours, gatherings and other aspects of daily life in 2020, which the Republican legislature had no power to address because it could not convene until January 2021.
Had lawmakers been able to call themselves into a special session, they could have passed laws superseding the governor’s executive orders.
The governor also decides what topics the legislature can address in a special session. Under Amendment 1, the legislature would have been able to set its own agenda.
The legislature also would have also gained more flexibility over the schedule of its regular sessions, which typically run from January through March in odd-number years and through the end of April in even-numbered years.
Beshear called Amendment 1 a "power grab" by GOP lawmakers. But Senate President Pro Tem David Givens, a Republican, said it "goes to the basis of checks and balances."
The entire, nearly 1,500-word legalese of the amendment was printed on Kentucky ballots.
