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Read. Follow. Verify.Kentucky House Bill 534 Overhauls Election Laws, Voter Purge Rules, and Campaign Finance Regulations
Last action · March 6, 2026: received in Senate to Committee on Committees (S)Sponsors: DJ Johnson and 2 others
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What This Bill Proposed
Kentucky HB 534 establishes strict new procedures for voter list maintenance, including federal noncitizen cross-checks and accelerated felony conviction reporting, while revising municipal mayoral vacancy rules, judicial candidate party affiliations, and campaign contribution limits.
The bill directly impacts every registered voter in Kentucky by tightening voter roll maintenance timelines, altering how noncitizen registrations and felony convictions are processed, changing municipal vacancy replacement procedures, and modifying campaign finance disclosure and contribution frameworks.
- Kentucky HB 534 was introduced during the 2026 Regular Session of the General Assembly, passing the House and moving to the Senate Committee on Committees. context
- The Kentucky State Board of Elections is an independent agency responsible for administering election laws and maintaining statewide voter registration databases. context
Who It Would Have Affected
Groups the bill's text would have affected, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Registered voters in Kentucky
Voters face new eligibility verification requirements, mandatory felony and noncitizen list purges, and revised provisional ballot rules.
County clerks
County clerks must update voter registration files, handle citizenship documentation copies, participate in hand-to-eye audits, and manage municipal vacancies.
Candidates and political committees
Campaigns must adhere to modified contribution limits, cash limits, disclaimer mandates, and Registry investigation procedures.
Judicial candidates
Judicial candidates gain explicit authorization to publicly disclose political party affiliations while remaining nonpartisan.
Key Facts
- The Administrative Office of the Courts must send certified notices of felony convictions to the State Board of Elections within ten days of final conviction.
- By July 24, 2026, the Administrative Office of the Courts must provide an all-time list of felony-convicted, ineligible-to-vote persons to the State Board of Elections, which must remove them from rolls by August 4, 2026.
- The State Board of Elections is authorized to enter into written memoranda of understanding with federal agencies to identify noncitizens registered to vote, sharing only name, date of birth, and the last four digits of the Social Security number.
- Voters identified as potential noncitizens must verify United States citizenship using specific documents like a birth certificate, U.S. passport, or naturalization certificate, or vote via provisional ballot after attesting under penalty of perjury.
Show all 11 facts
- Unverified noncitizen voter registrations are automatically purged if citizenship is not proven before the day after the second general election for federal office following their identification.
- The Cabinet for Health and Family Services must provide lifetime Kentucky death records to the State Board of Elections on or before July 1 each year.
- Voting systems utilizing nonhuman readable codes, such as barcodes or QR codes, for tabulation are prohibited.
- The bill establishes a mandatory hand-to-eye audit protocol where the Secretary of State randomly selects one ballot scanner and one race per county for manual verification.
- Judicial candidates are explicitly permitted to publicly disclose their political party affiliation, state past or current party status, and communicate political values consistent with that affiliation.
- The Kentucky Registry of Election Finance is empowered to investigate campaign finance violations, issue subpoenas, and impose administrative penalties of up to $200 per day for reporting failures, capped at $5,000 for non-statewide candidates.
- Anonymous contributions exceeding $100 must be returned, and anonymous contributions over $2,000 in the aggregate per election escheat to the state.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can judicial candidates state their political party affiliation under this bill?
How are felony-convicted individuals removed from voter rolls under HB 534?
What are the rules regarding cash and anonymous campaign contributions?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
This bill did not become law - Died at adjournment · passed the House · in the Senate.
Procedural history
11 actions- Mar 6, 2026SenateIntroducedreceived in Senate to Committee on Committees (S)
- Mar 5, 2026HouseFloorreported favorably, to Rules with Committee Substitute (2) and Committee Amendment (1-title) taken from Rules placed in the Orders of the Day floor amendment filed Floor Amendments (9), (10), (11), (12) and (13) to Committee Substitute (2) 3rd reading Floor Amendment (9) withdrawn passed 53-40 with Committee Substitute (2) and Committee Amendment (1-title)
- Mar 4, 2026HouseCommitteetaken from the Orders of the Day recommitted to Elections, Const. Amendments & Intergovernmental Affairs (H)
- Mar 2, 2026Housefloor amendment (8) filed to Committee Substitute , floor amendment (7) filed to bill
- Feb 26, 2026Housefloor amendment (5) filed to Committee Substitute , floor amendments (4) and (6-title) filed to bill
- Feb 24, 2026Houseposted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for Wednesday, February 25 2026
Show 5 earlier actions
- Feb 23, 2026Housefloor amendment (2) filed to Committee Substitute , floor amendment (3-title) filed to bill
- Feb 20, 2026HouseFloor2nd reading, to Rules
- Feb 19, 2026Housereported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar with Committee Substitute (1) floor amendment (1) filed to Committee Substitute
- Feb 9, 2026HouseCommitteeto Elections, Const. Amendments & Intergovernmental Affairs (H)
- Feb 2, 2026HouseIntroducedintroduced in House to Committee on Committees (H)
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Stricter Voter Roll Maintenance and Noncitizen Verifications
The bill introduces systematic federal agency data-sharing agreements to flag noncitizens on voter rolls and mandates strict documentary proof or provisional balloting.
Judicial Campaign Openness on Party Affiliation
A new section permits judicial candidates to express party affiliations and values while preserving the formal nonpartisan structure of the ballot.
Connected Entities
Sources
apps.legislature.ky.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance20Lowered because this bill did not pass (its text scored 90)
- Controversy85Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment15Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz65Current news / social attention level
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