Davidson County voter rolls lost 80,170 voters between Dec. 1, 2024, and June 1, 2025, according to the latest report published on Sept. 3 by Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett. Posts on the Davidson County Election Commission Facebook page indicate that a major voter purge occurred between Feb. 3 and March 3, when the county’s total eligible voters dropped from around 530,000 to 460,000.
County election commissions work with Hargett to maintain voter rolls across Tennessee. This includes adding newly registered voters, verifying registrations and eliminating voters based on six criteria spelled out in state law. Active voters might be purged upon request, death, name change (excluding marriage), written confirmation of a move outside the county or receiving a felony conviction. State law empowers election administrators to purge inactive voters, legally defined as an individual who hasn’t responded to a letter confirming their registration, doesn’t update their registration and fails to vote over two regular November elections.
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This second category accounted for the majority of voters — 66,460 — purged in the lead-up to this fall’s special election in Tennessee's 7th Congressional District. Another 13,710 active voters were purged during this time, bringing the total purged votes to 80,170, the most of any Tennessee county reported in that time period. More Davidson County voters were purged in these six months than in the past six years combined. Hargett’s report lists Davidson County’s total active voters at 442,852, along with 18,134 deemed inactive. Just 293,514 Davidson County voters — about 55 percent of eligible voters at the time — cast ballots in the Nov. 4, 2024, presidential election.
The same report lists 25,973 voters purged in Shelby County, 18,367 in Rutherford County, 14,375 in Knox County, 14,335 in Hamilton County and 14,115 in Williamson County. Purged inactive voters outnumbered purged active voters in every case.
U.S. Rep. Mark Green’s official resignation in July triggered a fast-tracked special election in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District called by Gov. Bill Lee and overseen by Hargett’s office. Losing Green’s seat could further endanger Republicans’ slim advantage in the U.S. House of Representatives. It could also reflect voters’ tolerance for the turbulent start to the second Trump administration. Both factors have put the race into the national spotlight. Several elected officials, both Democrat and Republican, have jumped into the race.
State GOP leaders drew the district in 2022 as one of three congressional seats that distribute Davidson County’s concentrated population and reliably Democratic voters across rural Middle Tennessee. At the time, Green protested “cracking” Davidson County, which had previously been encompassed by one seat, held by Democrat U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper. Nashville is the district’s major population center.
Davidson County election administrator Jeff Roberts did not return the Scene's request for comment.
Tennessee residents can check their voter registration at this link.
