You can’t vote to protect reproductive rights unless you’re registered to vote — by Tuesday

If you know anyone who is young or young adjacent, please tell them to fixate on this important date: Oct. 11. That’s when Kentucky’s voter registration deadline is final, over, kaput. After that, all the goodwill in the world to be a good citizen will be worth nothing.

In my experience as the mother of three boys, the time that young people get moving or get worried about anything is exactly one hour before said thing. I’m worried right now about Amendment #2, and how it could change the Constitution to take away all choice on reproductive rights from Kentuckians. It’s on the ballot on Nov. 8, which is practically a year away for many young people. But Oct. 11 is next week. And if you want to vote on Nov. 8, you have to register by Oct. 11. Next Tuesday. Practically tomorrow. If anyone young is reading this column, or maybe your parents sent it to you or something, it’s easy to register to vote online at https://vrsws.sos.ky.gov/ovrweb/. Please do so. You can also check to make sure your registration is current.

The wording of Amendment #2 is vague and confusing (as is that of Amendment #1 but that’s another column). It says to protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion. If you vote yes, you agree, if you vote no, the Constitution stays as it is.

Put another way, yes the General Assembly can legislate abortion out of existence in Kentucky, but another one can legislate it back in. If Amendment #2 passes, all hope of that is over.

I’m alarmed because I’m not seeing much activity about Amendment #2 right now — not many yard signs or door knocking or rallies. It’s too soon, maybe. Only it’s not too soon if you haven’t yet registered to vote against it. Do you sense a theme here?

Independent surge

I called up Secretary of State Michael Adams. He had some interesting, potentially good news. There’s a surge in registration data that is resembling pre-COVID levels, when registration drives were canceled. More interesting is that more independents are registering than either Republicans or Democrats. Even more interesting is one analysis that Adams saw showing that since 2020, 45% of new, independent voters have been between ages 18 and 29.

“Is this because of Dobbs and Roe and Amendment #2?” Adams said. “I just don’t know because no one tells us when they register, but what we have seen is since we have been in office is that independent voters are growing by leaps and bounds.”

But Adams, a Republican, is not convinced that turnout will be much over the normal 40% in a midterm election. He’s not seeing much enthusiasm on either side of Amendment #2. In Kansas, which rocked many worlds by defeating a similar amendment, both sides raised more than $22 million, including big name donors like Steven Spielburg. Here, it’s barely $2 million.

“Unless there’s a significant increase in funding from outside to promote this thing, it’s not going to generate turnout,” Adams said. If outside money starts pouring in or we start to see more excitement generated, then he might change his turnout predictions.

Students unite

Protect Kentucky Access is the main group fighting against Amendment #2, but there are other grassroots organizations popping up around the state. Here in Lexington, University of Kentucky law students Madeline Watts, Juliana Grant and Emily Hensley Dial reignited a law school chapter of IfWhenHow, a national reproductive justice law group. Their Instagram is @uklaw_ifwhenhow.

“Honestly, the response has been overwhelmingly positive,” Watts said. More than 50 people showed up at the first meeting. “We’ve got men and women in the organization, because they realize it’s not just a women’s issue —we believe that couples or individuals should have a right to decide if when and how they have a family and it shouldn’t be up to elected officials or politics to decide. It’s reproductive health and justice.”

The group is going to do some late stage voter registration and a lot of education on campus and around town about what the amendment would do: “Our main goal and initiative is education — to talk to people about here’s what you need to do to keep abortion a legal and safe option for Kentuckians.”

Watts moves from realism to optimism, “but I do think there is a more tangible awareness of our rights as women being on the line that is apparent in the younger community,” she said. “I do think we will see more turnout.”

Let’s hope she is right. It would be nice if people of all ages would register to vote without a crisis like Amendment #2 at hand. But here we are, as women mostly, faced with a major crisis of our privacy and autonomy. And so I will say it again, please, please, please register to vote by Oct. 11. And then vote no on Amendment #2.