Hey Thanks, Free Hearts,
Tennessee disenfranchises its residents at obscenely high rates. A report from The Sentencing Project released in October showed that ours is one of three states — along with Mississippi and Alabama — where “more than 8 percent of the adult population, one of every 13 people, is disenfranchised” due to a felony conviction. More than one in five Black adults in Tennessee is barred from voting for that reason. In all, going into this year’s elections, more than 450,000 Tennesseans were unable to vote because of a felony conviction.
Changing that will ultimately require action from the legislators who write our laws and crafted the Byzantine process for getting one’s voting rights restored. But in the meantime, a Nashville organization called Free Hearts, which was founded for and by formerly incarcerated women, has gone about helping people restore their voting rights as soon as possible. In addition to working with formerly incarcerated people as they navigate the system, Free Hearts started the Fines and Fees Fund to collect donations that would go toward paying off the debts that are keeping Tennesseans from participating in elections. Because of Free Hearts’ work, some people were able to vote for the first time in this year’s elections.
But the work doesn’t end. There is always another election — at the local, state or federal level — on the horizon, and in this state there are hundreds of thousands of people barred from voting. As we work to ultimately tear down the barriers between formerly incarcerated people and the ballot box, we can also work to help people get around those barriers. Free Hearts is doing that right now, and we can all show our gratitude by giving what we can to the effort.
—Steven Hale
Staff Writer, Nashville Scene
