Apparently the Tennessee General Assembly needs to close a potential loophole in our laws which may allow some felons to vote, and the votes of nine incarcerated prisoners may have made the difference in a Nashville Metro Council race. The campaign in Davidson County District 20 was decided by nine votes, and nine prisoners voted. Only one of the nine apparently had an official residence in District 20 prior to being arrested, but the others simply swore in an affidavit that they intended to establish residence in Davidson County upon release. Who on God's green Earth is going to hold them to that kind of promise?
Current law states that someone who is incarcerated and who hasn't formally lost their voting rights must vote by absentee ballot, but that two election judges have to be witnesses to the act, and that at least seven days before Election Day, these judges go to the prison, observe the incarcerated person vote, and then must personally take the ballot to the Post Office. There is, of course, no potential for voter fraud there (sarcasm mine).
People convicted of first degree murder, aggravated rape, treason, or voter fraud were forbidden the franchise after 1981, but both the State and federal Constitution forbid the exercise of ex post facto law, so if a prisoner who would not now be eligible to vote under the law registered before 1981, they have to be allowed to vote. In Davidson County District 20, however, it is alleged that the prisoners all registered to vote after 1981, but we don't know what they were convicted of.
The General Assembly needs to adopt rules which insure the integrity of the ballot, and one of those might be that if you are convicted of any first degree felony, you lose your franchise.
Comments