Legislation to extend the fiscal court reapportionment deadline has passed the Kentucky Senate and now heads back to the House for its stamp of approval on one change to the bill. HB 212, sponsored by Representative Michael Meredith, adjusts the filing deadline by requiring fiscal courts to initiate reapportionment proceedings in May 2023 instead of 2022.
Each year after the decennial U.S. Census, counties are required to complete the magisterial reapportionment process.
COVID-19 caused months of delays in complete Census data. In last year’s session, the law was changed to move 2021’s required reapportionment to May 2022.
As it is currently mandated, reapportionment of fiscal court members could result in changes to district lines after the May primary has passed and before the general election, potentially leaving some primary election winners ineligible to run in November if they were moved to a different district as a result.
HB 212 would prevent issues such as this from happening with the districts being redrawn after the current county election cycle has concluded. The bill also suspends a statute to allow the State Board of Elections addition time needed to approve precinct boundaries.
The bill was passed unanimously on the floors of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. An emergency clause attached to the bill will put the legislation into effect immediately after it is signed into law.
We are grateful for the support of Rep. Meredith for sponsoring the bill and Sen. Robby Mills’ leadership in carrying the bill in the Senate.
Photo provided by LRC.
