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TENNESSEE MAIL IN PRESIDENTIAL BALLOTS WILL MAKE IT EASIER TO VOTE THEY SAY...
Nashville judge on Thursday ruled the state of Tennessee must give any registered voter the option to cast a ballot by mail, paving the way for widespread mail-in voting in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
Previously, Tennessee has limited the use of absentee ballots and mail-in voting to those who are actively sick, disabled, traveling or elderly. The risk of being exposed to coronavirus was not considered justification to submit a vote by mail.
Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle on Thursday ordered the state government to abandon this restriction and no longer require a specific excuse for why a resident could not vote in person.
State attorneys had argued this was infeasible, despite the fact that most states offer less restrictive and more expansive use of absentee ballots. In her order, Lyle wrote “the evidence does not support” the state’s claim that it is “impossible” to provide expanded access to voting by mail.
“In this time of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and its contagion in gatherings of people, almost all states – both Republican and Democrat – are providing their citizens the health protection of a voting by mail option,” Lyle wrote. “This includes southern states such as Alabama, South Carolina and Arkansas, and Tennessee‘s neighboring state of Kentucky and nearby West Virginia. The governors, state officials and legislators in those states have spearheaded efforts to expand access to voting by mail to protect the health of their citizens during the pandemic.”
Per Lyle’s order, the state is no longer permitted to enforce its current requirement that residents provide an “excuse” as to why they cannot vote in person. The state is also mandated to provide any eligible voter who applies to vote by mail in order to avoid coronavirus with an absentee ballot. The state must also post on their websites notifications that those who do not wish to vote in person because of coronavirus are eligible to request an absentee ballot and cast their vote by mail.
The order does not require the state to automatically mail absentee ballots to all registered voters, as is done in some states. Voters must still ask for an absentee ballot so they can vote by mail.
In a written statement issued after the ruling, the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee called the decision a “major victory for voting rights.” The ACLU represented Ben Lay, a Nashville resident who was one of the plaintiffs whfiled a lawsuit challenging the state’s existing rules restriction voting by mail.
“I am very grateful that I will now be able to vote safely," Lay said in the ACLU statement. "Though I am disabled and my wife and I both have health conditions that compromise our immune systems, we were barred from voting by mail before. Thanks to the court, I can now exercise my right to vote without putting my health or the health of my wife at risk."
The Tennessee Secretary of State disagrees with Lyle's ruling and expects Attorney General Herbert Slatery III to appeal, said Julia Bruck, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Tre Hargett. Slatery criticized the ruling in a statement but didn't address plans to appeal.
“It is yet another court decision replacing legislation passed by the people’s elected officials with its own judgment, largely ignoring the practicalities of implementing such a decision, and doing so in the midst of a pandemic and budget crisis," Slatery said.
Mail-in voting has become a political focal point as the United States grapples with a deadly coronavirus pandemic that will likely stretch through the presidential election in November. Voters who mail in their ballots will be able to avoid polling places that may be ripe for exposure to the virus on Election Day.
Five states already handle all voting by mail. Most states permit residents to vote by mail on request, although some require a reason to accept a ballot by mail. Tennessee is one of a dwindling number of states that doesn’t consider the coronavirus pandemic a justification to vote by mail.
Gov. Bill Lee has said he does not believe mail-in voting for all is “necessary in our state.”
This unwillingness to expand mail-in voting during the pandemic has led to lawsuits in both state and federal court. The ruling on Thursday came from two lawsuit in state court filed by a total of nine voters in Shelby, Davidson and Rutherford counties.
In her order, Lyle said neighboring states had exhibited a “can-do attitude” when it came to mail-in voting while Tennessee’s position was “unapologetic.” The state’s “failure to adapt” had placed a “severe burden on those who are highly susceptible to coronavirus and at least a moderate burden on all other voters.
“Thus, the State‘s restrictive interpretation and application of Tennessee‘s voting by mail law … during the unique circumstances of the pandemic, constitutes an unreasonable burden on the fundamental right to vote guaranteed by the Tennessee Constitution.”
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Originally Posted by Socalman
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