Image Credit: Adelia Kirchner / The Tennessee Conservative
The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
A bill that would prevent the voter registration of illegal immigrants and convicted felons in Tennessee passed both chambers of the legislature on Monday after previously being placed behind the budget in the House.
House Bill 69 (HB0069)/Senate Bill 133 (SB0133) is sponsored by Rep. William Lamberth (R-Portland-District 44) and Sen. Jack Johnson (R-Franklin-District 27).
The legislation maintains three objectives to be reached by January 1st, 2028:
- Requires that the Secretary of State work with local and state election officials to create a secure electronic portal for county election administrators to verify United States citizenship and voter eligibility.
- Requires that the coordinator of elections, in collaboration with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, to create a similar portal to verify whether someone is ineligible to vote because of a felony conviction.
- Requires a visual distinction, such as a color or font on the face of a photo identification license, to differentiate the class designation for the purpose of voting.
“This came really from a conversation that happened in my district. There were 15 convicted felons that were allowed to vote in our elections in Sumner County and at that time period there was actually a tie on the county commission,” said Rep. Lamberth. “I can’t tell you if those 15 people voted in that particular county commission race, but there were 13 of them that were prosecuted. Two passed away before charges were brought and quite frankly, I thought it obviously wasn’t fair to our election system but it also wasn’t fair to those folks because when they went to register to vote one of them called me and was concerned that when he registered to vote nobody checked to see whether he was a convicted felon.”
The House Majority Leader explained that the individual had only been required to check a box saying that his rights had been restored.
The individual checked that box because he thought his rights had been restored and he assumed that if that was not the case, his registration would not be allowed to go through and he would not be allowed to vote.
The process set up by this legislation would ensure that the Secretary of State’s Office would be able to adequately provide information as to who can and cannot register to vote ahead of time, before such an individual actually shows up at the ballot box.
Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville-District 55) asked Rep. Lamberth to explain how this bill would benefit voters.
“We want lawful voters, people that are lawfully able to vote, to be able to vote and only those voters,” said Rep. Lamberth. “There was a system that the Secretary of State has relied upon to my understanding, that generated a list of names that appeared to not be citizens and they sent them a letter, in fact, two letters making it clear, look if you’re a citizen you’re able to vote but if you’re not a citizen it’s actually illegal to vote. This type of system would completely and totally get ahead of that. So that there’s not 14,000 letters or whatever it is being sent out before an election.”
Under this legislation, convicted felons and illegal immigrants who are not allowed to vote would be flagged ahead of time, before someone has actually committed a crime by voting when they are not legally permitted to.
The bill passed on the House floor by a 77-18 vote.
Republicans Alexander, Atchely, Baum, Boyd, Bricken, Bulso, Burkhart, Butler, Capley, Carringer, Cepicky, Cochran, Crawford, Darby, Davis, Doggett, Eldridge, Faison, Farmer, Fritts, Gant, Garrett, Grills, Hale, Haston, Hawk, Helton-Haynes, Hicks G, Hicks T, Hill, Howell, Hulsey, Hurt, Jones R, Keisling, Kumar, Lafferty, Lamberth, Leatherwood, Littleton, Maberry, Marsh, Martin B, Martin G, McCalmon, Moody, Moon, Powers, Raper, Reedy, Reeves, Reneau, Rudd, Rudder, Russell, Scarbrough, Sherrell, Slater, Sparks, Stevens, Stinnett, Terry, Todd, Travis, Vaughan, Vital, Warner, White, Williams, Wright, Zachary and Speaker Sexton voted in favor of the legislation.
So did Democrats Clemmons, Glynn, Hemmer, Mitchell and Shaw.
Democrats Behn, Brooks, Camper, Chism, Dixie, Freeman, Hakeem, Haraway, Harris, Johnson, Jones J, Love, McKenzie, Miller, Parkinson, Pearson, Powell and Salinas voted against it.
The bill also passed in the Senate on Monday.
The 32-0 Senate floor vote was almost unanimous but Sen. Charlane Oliver was recorded as “present and not voting.
Republicans Paul Bailey, Janice Bowling, Richard Briggs, Rusty Crowe, Todd Gardenhire, Ferrell Haile, Bobby Harshbarger, Tom Hatcher, Joey Hensley, Ed Jackson, Jack Johnson, Adam Lowe, Becky Massey, Mark Pody, Bill Powers, Shane Reeves, Kerry Roberts, Paul Rose, Jessie Seal, Steve Southerland, John Stevens, Brent Taylor, Page Walley, Bo Watson, Dawn White, Ken Yager and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, as well as Democrats Raumesh Akbari, Heidi Campbell, Sara Kyle, London Lamar and Jeff Yarbro voted in favor of the legislation.
About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. Adelia is The Tennessee Conservative’s on-site reporter for the Tennessee General Assembly. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
