Early voting begins today in Tennessee. Long lines of people are stretching around polling places across the state as voters turn out for the presidential, congressional and state legislative elections. But because of the state's uniquely Byzantine process for getting one's voting rights restored after a felony conviction, hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans cannot participate.
A new report from The Sentencing Project shows that Tennessee is one of the nation's leaders when it comes to felony disenfranchisement. It is one of three states — along with Mississippi and Alabama — where "more than 8 percent of the adult population, one of every thirteen people, is disenfranchised." Not surprisingly, given the racial inequality in our society and resulting disparities in our criminal justice system, Black Tennesseans are disproportionately disenfranchised. In Tennessee, more than one in five Black adults is barred from voting due to a felony conviction, making Tennessee one of only two states where more than 20 percent of the Black adult population is disenfranchised. More than 7 percent of Latinx Tennesseans are disenfranchised due to felony-level convictions.
On the national level, the report found that there has been some progress due to reforms that have expanded voting access. But still, 5.2 million Americans are disenfranchised, representing 2.3 percent of the voting age population.
