The 2016 US presidential election will not allow nearly 500,000 individuals in Tennessee to vote under the new electoral legislation, which critics say will harm Black and Latinx voters, according to Newsweek.
Previously, only people who had earned a pardon or had their voting rights restored were able to vote if they had been convicted of particular offenses in Tennessee. The Tennessee Secretary of State indicates that criminals convicted of exceptionally heinous acts, such as first-degree murder, may or may not be allowed to reclaim their right to vote, depending on the year of their incarceration.
Tennessee residents must reclaim their gun rights in order to vote
The Tennessee Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms as a condition of citizenship. However, it is prohibited for felons in Tennessee and elsewhere to buy, acquire, or carry weapons after serving their term.
According to Campaign Legal Center (CLC) attorney Blair Bowie, persons convicted of drug or violent crimes “will not be able to restore their gun rights” under Tennessee law.
According to CLC analysis from 2022, Tennessee’s rights restoration process is the most difficult, punishing, and mismanaged of any state in the United States.
For instance, “Tennessee is one of only a handful of states that conditions the right to vote on payment of legal debt and the only state that requires a person to be current on child support to restore their voting rights.”
How to restore the right to vote after a criminal conviction?
State election officials interpreted a Tennessee Supreme Court order in the summer of 2023 as requiring anyone with felony convictions who wants to reclaim their right to vote to either establish they have been pardoned or get a judge’s restoration of full citizenship rights.
A person charged with a felony must now seek a pardon from the governor or have their full citizenship rights, including the right to keep and bear arms, restored by a court. To restore the ability to vote, the individual must subsequently complete the certificate of restoration process.
According to a 2022 forecast by the Sentencing Project, roughly 471,000 persons, or 9% of those of voting age, will be ineligible to vote due to a felony record.
“Tennessee denies voting rights to 21 percent of Black voting age citizens and 8 percent of Latinx voting age citizens due to system involvement. The rate of disenfranchisement for Black Tennesseans is nearly four times the national average for Black Americans,” the Sentencing Project previously reported.
Election officials enacted the change in July 2023, and it has since prevented nearly all voting rights restorations.
Of the more than 60 applicants, just one was approved. According to data from the secretary of state’s office, around 200 persons were granted permission and 120 were denied in the nearly seven months leading up to its implementation, according to AP.
