Constitutional Amendment 1Constitutional amendment · Put on the ballot by lawmakers
Limit election-season governor pardons
Explain it like I'm 5
A pardon forgives a crime, and a commutation shortens a sentence. This amendment would pause those powers around a governor’s election, like temporarily locking a teacher’s gradebook during a school leadership change.
Yes vote
Changing the Kentucky Constitution to bar the governor from pardoning or commuting sentences from 60 days before a gubernatorial election until after the fifth Tuesday following it.
No vote
Keeping the current constitutional rule, which allows the governor to pardon or commute sentences at any time.
The question to ask yourself
Is preventing possible last-minute abuse more important than keeping clemency available during emergencies and election-related transitions?
The case for
- Prevents outgoing governors from making controversial clemency decisions after voters can no longer respond.
- Adds accountability to a broad power with no ordinary approval requirement.
- Keeps pardon and commutation powers available during the rest of the governor’s term.
Backed by: Sen. Chris McDaniel, Kentucky State Senate, Kentucky House of Representatives
The case against
- Could delay relief for people wrongly convicted or facing urgent medical circumstances.
- Electors can already hold governors accountable for controversial clemency decisions.
- A constitutional restriction may be too inflexible for correcting serious injustices.
Opposed by: Gov. Andy Beshear, Sen. Reggie Thomas, ACLU of Kentucky
- Money
- The amendment has no direct tax effect or identified direct cost, and no cost estimate was stated in the sources.
- Don't be misled
- It is misleading to say the amendment ends pardons, because it would only pause pardons and commutations during a defined election-period window.