Kentucky Senate Approves Electronic Voting Bill That Requires Snail Mail Returns

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Credit KY LRC

The state Senate has passed a bill that allows Kentucky military personnel to register to vote and receive ballots electronically—but they'll have to use snail mail to send the ballots back.

The bill's authors wanted to let deployed Kentuckians vote electronically, but State Senate President Robert Stivers doesn't believe that would be safe.

"If somebody does something to my bank book by electronic means I'll know it," he said."If I  happen to get a lesser tax bill or greater tax bill I will know it. Once you cast your ballot, there's no way to know what happened to that ballot."

Initially, a floor amendment to the bill would have allowed the military members to return the ballots electronically, but the amendment was withdrawn by sponsor Sen. Kathy Stein, a Lexington Democrat. Stein said she thinks the state House will reinsert that provision into the bill.

The bill cleared the Senate 37-0 and now moves to the Kentucky House of Representatives for consideration.