KENTUCKY — Voters of Kentucky appeared to reject a ballot amendment that would have empowered lawmakers to call themselves into special sessions on their own volition.

The AP officially called the race around noon on Wednesday. The ballot measure was resoundingly rejected with "no" votes garnering seven percentage points more than those in favor.

The proposed constitutional amendment was anything but brief, running nearly the length of the ballot. It would’ve shifted more power toward Kentucky’s legislature, where Republicans hold dominating supermajorities in both chambers.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear has bluntly called the proposal a “power grab” by rival GOP lawmakers in the legislature and said if passed, it would have disrupted the traditional separation of powers.

“No branch should be too strong,” Beshear said in a video aired on KET. “Yet the legislature wants to give itself more power so that it could call itself into session to change an executive branch decision over the most minute thing.”

With the measure defeated, Kentucky remains one of 14 states where only the governor can summon the legislature into special session, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Those championing the measure brought it forth largely as a reckoning in response to pandemic-related restrictions, which drew ire from GOP leaders and lawmakers alike.

Legal challenges targeting Beshear’s executive power were frequent, and, upon defeat, lawmakers were essentially relegated to the sidelines, unable to take action on the governor’s orders until their next regular session the following year.

For now, Kentucky lawmakers will continue annual sessions beginning in January that run through the spring.