Nearly Half a Million Tennesseans Barred from Voting in Upcoming Election Due to Felony Convictions
Nashville, Tennessee — According to a recent report published by the Tennessee Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, Tennessee is one of the most restrictive states in the country when it comes to voting access, and it places additional burdens on certain voters, particularly those convicted of felonies, which some lawmakers want to change.
According to the Sentencing Project, an estimated 470,000 Tennessee residents are unable to vote owing to a felony conviction, denying more individuals the right to vote than 49 other states.
Most states revoke a person’s ability to vote if they are convicted of a crime, although more than 20 states automatically restore that right upon release from prison. However, Tennessee only enables some convicted criminals to reclaim their right to vote, and they must go through what some call a complicated process to do so.
Following a 2023 Supreme Court ruling, the Tennessee Coordinator of Elections announced a change in state policy requiring those who qualify to have their voting rights restored to first receive a pardon or persuade a judge to restore their citizenship rights, including their gun rights, before having their voting rights restored. Opponents claim the process can take months or years and is often costly.
“It should not be this difficult for people who simply want to participate in the electoral process,” House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville) stated. “All of these stupid barriers have been put in place to limit voting rights for young people and people of color, and you have to wonder why? What are Tennessee’s political leaders frightened of? “Why don’t they want these people to vote?”
Rep. Clemmons wants Tennessee to follow the model of numerous other states, some of which are Republican-led, in automatically restoring convicted felons’ voting rights once they have served their sentences.
In 2020, Iowa’s Republican governor signed an executive order to restore convicted criminals’ voting rights after they had served their term, including probation. Prior to the judgment, Iowa was the only state to permanently revoke convicted felons’ voting rights.
When News 2 approached Gov. Bill Lee about making it simpler for convicted felons who have served their sentence to regain their voting rights in October 2023, he stated the final decision would be up to the General Assembly.
During the forthcoming legislative session, lawmakers may propose changes to Tennessee’s rules.
“Part of the penal process is of course discipline and punishment and deterrence, but the other prong of our penal system is rehabilitation,” according to Clemmons. “We know such folks will reenter society; do we want to keep them disenfranchised? Do we want to tell them that they can’t participate in their community or be active citizens again when we expect them to?”
He went on to say, “No one wants non-citizens to be allowed to vote, no one wants anyone to be able to vote fraudulently or twice, or anyone who is not registered to vote to vote. We want to maintain the integrity of the voting process, but American citizens, naturalized citizens, and people with the legal right to vote should be able to vote without having to go through numerous legal hoops.”