Local legislators are supporting a bill that would put a constitutional amendment on the ballot move elections for statewide officers such as governor, secretary of state, attorney general and treasurer to even-numbered years.
Those are the only races on the ballot every other odd-numbered year and Senator Whitney Westerfield of Hopkinsville–who is running for attorney general in 2019–voted for the bill when it made it out of the Senate last week.
Westerfield says voter turnout has been very low for constitutional officer election cycles.
Representative Walker Thomas of Hopkinsville says it’d also save taxpayers money by combining elections.
Opponents of the legislation say Republicans are trying to give themselves an advantage by moving the constitutional officer elections to coincide with the presidential election cycle. Senate Bill 4 passed the Senate on a 24-11 vote and will require a super-majority in the House for it to appear on ballots in November.