Addressing a crowd of local activists Saturday, University of Kentucky law professor and voting expert Joshua Douglas invoked the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday falls on Jan. 15.

“Give us the ballot,” said Douglas, who raised his voice so that everyone in the crowd of about 30 to 40 people, huddled together on a chilly January day, could hear him.

“We need to stand up for democracy,” Douglas said, railing against what he described as attacks on voting rights unfolding in states across the country.

The Rally for Voting Rights, held at the Shake Rag Barbershop in a historic area of downtown Bowling Green, was hosted by the Kentucky League of Women Voters.

Hoping to channel the spirit of activism famously embodied by King, activists and organizers were on hand to register voters and distribute resources for getting involved.

“They’re going to take your vote,” said JohnAlma Barnett, a Bowling Green resident who spoke about her opposition to Kentucky GOP lawmakers’ plans to redraw representative districts. “You are standing in (House) District 20. Our legislature is about to tear it to pieces … They’re trying to take your vote. They’re just going to dilute it by putting you somewhere else.”

Barnett urged rally participants to get involved and avoid sitting home on Election Day.

“Get your friends out there to vote. Call them from other states because they’re trying to steal democracy,” Barnett said.

Saturday’s rally also featured vocal performances from Essence of Harmony, while Douglas headlined the event as its keynote speaker.

Douglas devoted most of his remarks to discussing in detail the voting reforms congressional Democrats would like to pass through the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

The legislation is unlikely to pass given that all Senate Republicans and even some more conservative Democrats – including Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin – won’t support its passage.

“These are not radical” changes, Douglas said, adding that virtually every one of the changes “has been done already in some place” in the country.

Key reforms include making it easier to register to vote such as through online voter registration, automatic voter registration once someone turns 18 and same-day voter registration on Election Day.

“This not a crazy or radical idea. Over half the states have same-day voter registration … Is there a lot of fraud in these? Absolutely not,” Douglas said, pushing back on congressional Republicans’ claims that enacting these changes would dramatically ramp up fraudulent voting.

“You can’t tell me that democracy’s broken in half the states that have same-day voter registration,” Douglas said.

Other changes in the bill include no-excuse absentee voting and mandatory drop boxes for ballots. It would also require that a certain amount of federal funding be set aside for public financing of political campaigns “so that people who are not wealthy or have no rich friends have the ability to run for office,” Douglas said.

“These are not radical. Virtually nothing in this (bill) is something that hasn’t been done already in some state or locality in the country. So we know that it works,” Douglas said.

Speaking to the Daily News after the event, Douglas called the likely defeat of voting reforms at the congressional level “simply another bump in the road” and encouraged voting rights activists to stay engaged in the long-term.

Douglas was also optimistic about a successful court challenge against Kentucky Republicans’ redistricting maps, which have a steady path to becoming law given that the GOP has veto-proof supermajorities in both the Kentucky House and Senate.

Speaking to the crowd, Douglas urged them to keep up their fight.

“We need to say that we the people are supreme, we the people are sovereign,” he said.