Amendment to curtail KY governor’s pardon power wins by large margin

Kentucky voters have approved a constitutional amendment to curb governors’ pardon powers around elections. 

The amendment won at the ballot box Tuesday by a vote of almost 40 percentage points. Unofficial results were 71% in favor to 29% opposing. The change limits Kentucky governors’ power to grant pardons and sentence commutations around elections by blocking them 60 days before their election through the inauguration in December. 

Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ryland Heights, had repeatedly proposed legislation for the amendment in the General Assembly for several years after former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin issued a flurry of controversial pardons after he lost the 2019 election to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.

“Tonight, Kentuckians placed a reasonable limit on one of the broadest powers held by any governor,” McDaniel said in a statement. “I’m grateful they took the time to consider this amendment and chose to approve it.

McDaniel said he began this effort in 2020, “after a governor from my own party issued pardons and commutations following an election. Some of those decisions caused profound pain for victims and their families. No vote can undo what happened to them. Tonight, though, Kentuckians took that painful lesson and gave it a lasting place in our Constitution: No governor, of either party, should be able to reserve these decisions until the election is beyond the voters’ reach.”

“I thank my colleagues in both parties who helped bring this question to the ballot and everyone who considered it in good faith. The safeguard voters approved tonight will apply equally to every future governor.”

The campaign for the amendment was a quieter affair than others have been in recent years. No issue committees filed to support or oppose the issue. McDaniel sponsored some materials himself and traveled across the state leading up to Election Day to speak in support of the measure. 

“There is no check on the power to pardon, and so we’ve got to get ourselves to the point where there is a check,” McDaniel previously said in an October interview with the Kentucky Lantern. 

Bevin’s pardons were widely criticized. He issued pardons to people convicted of crimes including rape, murder and child abuse. One was for a Northern Kentucky man who had been convicted of raping a nine-year-old the year before. Another was for a convicted killer whose family raised money for Bevin’s campaign.

However, some were wary of changing the Kentucky Constitution because of one person. Scottie Ellis, a spokesperson for Beshear, told the Lantern in June that while Bevin had “abused the pardon authority and let violent criminals out of prison, … the solution should not be to limit a governor’s pardon powers but to ensure we elect good governors.”

This story has been updated with additional information.