Area legislators support moving statewide officer elections

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.

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Westerfield says voter turnout has been very low for constitutional officer election cycles.

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Representative Walker Thomas of Hopkinsville says it'd also save taxpayers money by combining elections.

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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.