If you've paid your debts to society after being convicted of a felony and you want to vote in Tennessee, you generally have a persuade a judge to restore your gun rights first. This will likely change under a bill approved by the Republican-led legislature.
But opponents say the proposal awaiting Gov. Bill Lee's signature doesn't do enough to clear hurdles for the nearly half-a-million disenfranchised Tennesseans — including 1 in 5 of the state's African Americans — who might otherwise be able to vote again.
Voting rights and the right to bear arms — along with the right to hold public office and serve as a fiduciary or on a jury — became linked under an interpretation of a 2023 court ruling by Tennessee election officials.
The new bill would treat each of these “full citizenship rights" separately, but each disenfranchised person would still have to persuade a judge to restore them — a process that can be costly, onerous and have uncertain results — or be pardoned by the governor.
How it works now
In Tennessee, state law presumes that judges will approve such requests, barring evidence that the petitioner is ineligible or “good cause” to deny them.
Some petitioners have had other rights restored but a denial of their right to carry weapons means they still can't vote, experts said. Tennessee law removes gun rights after felony drug crimes and felonies involving violence. Several people in that position managed to have provisional ballots counted in November after they sued and judges ruled in their favor.
And even if a judge grants back the full list of rights, a petitioner usually then needs to track down officials in the criminal justice system to document that they've served their sentences and do not owe outstanding court costs or child support, and then turn the paperwork in to election officials. A separate process that reinstates voting rights — getting a court to expunge a criminal record — can't be done when certain felonies are involved.
Only a fraction of the state's disenfranchised population has succeeded in getting voting rights restored. From November 2021 to mid-July 2023, before this process was made still more difficult, there were 731 restorations, 437 denials and 154 expungements, the secretary of state's office said.
From mid-July 2023 until present day, following the change, the state had 126 restorations, 257 denials and 163 expungements.
Tennessee, which ranks among the lowest states for voter turnout, has more than 470,000 disenfranchised felons who face a convoluted restoration process that is also unavailable for select offenses, according to estimates from The Sentencing Project, last updated in 2023. This includes 9% of Tennessee’s voting-age population. More than 21% of voting-age Black people aren't allowed to vote.
How the bill would change the process
This year's bill would enable people to ask a judge to restore just one or more of the citizenship rights. They'd need to prove eligibility through certified records and sworn statements, and show they are up to date on child support and court cost requirements.
If there's no opposition from prosecutors or the attorney general, a judge could approve this without a hearing. The petitioner would then send a certified court order to election officials, who would send back a voter registration card.
Anyone convicted of certain offenses such as voter fraud, treason, first-degree murder and aggravated rape would remain permanently banned from voting.
Since 2020, Tennessee’s voting-rights restoration system has been challenged in federal court. Plaintiffs say there’s been no clarity about which officials can sign the necessary forms, no criteria for denial and no avenue offered for appeal, among other criticisms. It’s unclear how the bill will affect this lawsuit.
Voting rights advocates remain concerned about the bill's remaining requirements and potential costs, including:
— providing proof by “a preponderance of evidence,” a legal standard that is higher than the “shall be granted” language in current citizenship rights law;
— charging court costs unless someone qualifies as indigent;
— requiring sworn statements, potentially exposing people to perjury when reliable records are old or hard to find.
How other states operate
Both Republican and Democratic-led states have eased the voting rights restoration process in recent years. But some states have added complexities, such as Tennessee's 2023 change. In Florida, after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring the right to vote for the estimated 1.8 million people in the state who had felony convictions, the Republican-controlled Legislature watered that down by requiring payment of fines, fees and court costs.
Voting rights are automatically restored upon release in nearly half of states. In 15 others, it occurs after parole, probation or a similar period and sometimes requires paying outstanding court costs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Maine and Vermont, people with felonies keep their voting rights in prison, the NCSL says.
Ten other states including Tennessee require additional government action — Virginia ’s governor, for example, must personally intervene to restore voting rights.
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