East Tennessee Republican weighs voter rights restoration bill

The chairman of the House Criminal Justice Committee is looking at legislation that could streamline the process for voter rights restoration, making it easier for felons who’ve served their time to go to the ballot box.

Republican state Rep. Bud Hulsey of Bristol told the Tennessee Lookout he started holding meetings last week on a measure to simplify the process, a move that could help nearly half a million Tennesseans, 200,000 of whom are Black residents, to regain their voting rights.

“It’s been patchwork for so long that it’s a mess for a judge to try to interpret what is the right decision,” Hulsey said.

Hulsey noted at least five bills designed to improve the system for voter rights restoration came before his committee last session, leading him to ask his legal assistant to start formulating legislation “that will clean all that mess up” and come up with a “reasonable, lawful way for somebody to get their voting rights back.”

Hulsey agreed that it is difficult to regain voting rights in Tennessee and blamed disparate laws placed in state code at different times.

Gov. Bill Lee offered mild support this week for an effort to ease the process in light of a New York Times video commentary critical of Tennessee’s voter rights restoration requirements.

Restoring voting rights after a felony is rare in Tennessee. This year, the process got harder.

The state is tied up in a lawsuit over restoring those rights to felons, a case set to be argued this fall. A federal judge ruled in April that Tennessee election officials can’t deny eligible felons the opportunity for voter registration and that they must inform potential voters of eligibility requirements.

Under state law, people who’ve served their time for felony convictions can regain their voting rights, but the prospects are dim.

They can either obtain a pardon from the governor after filling out a litany of paperwork and making a formal request or go through the expensive proposition of hiring an attorney and persuading a judge they should be allowed to vote again. This requires a certificate of restoration and proof that all fines and fees have been paid.

The video points out fewer than 1% of applicants succeed, and only 3% of those who seek a pardon from the governor receive one.

In addition, applicants have to regain their ability to carry a weapon, because in Tennessee the right to bear arms is a right of citizenship, based on an interpretation the Secretary of State’s Office started enforcing early this year.

Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Angelita Blackshear Dalton ruled recently that four people convicted of felonies can’t be barred from regaining their voting rights because the offenses prohibit them from carrying a gun, according to an Associated Press report.

Tennessee Democrats, contending the state has one of the lowest percentages of voter participation nationally, have sponsored numerous bills in the Legislature over the years to simplify the process for voter rights restoration but failed to pass them in the body controlled by supermajority Republicans.

One that failed last session would have changed the revocation of voter rights for infamous crimes to a temporary suspension and restore them once a prison sentence and probation or parole are completed. Another would have set up automatic restoration of voter rights once a person completes a prison sentence, along with adding seditious conspiracy to the list of offenses for which voting rights could be revoked.

Hulsey’s plan marks a bit of reversal for the conservative lawmaker, a retired law officer from upper East Tennessee who also believes the state should be able to nullify federal laws and orders it believes are unconstitutional.

Nevertheless, he met with interested groups last week to start determining whether the proposal would fix “all the problems.”

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and X.