If you were to ask anyone, Republican or Democrat, what are the top 3 things they are following on a federal level, one answer would be the SAVE America Act.
The SAVE Act is an acronym for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act and Ii case you haven’t had time to read the bill yourself, here’s the gist:
You need to prove your citizenship to vote. You can use a REAL ID, a passport, a military ID card, or a government-issued photo ID card indicating the place of birth. If you don’t have those, but have a government-issued photo ID card that does not indicate the place of birth, such as a driver’s license, you can bring that in addition to a birth certificate, a statement from the United States hospital proving your record of birth, a final adoption decree, a statement from another country indicating the citizen was born to US citizens, a naturalization certificate or an American Indian card.
If by some chance a person is unable to provide the needed proof, they can sign an affidavit stating they are a citizen of the United States and their name can be run through one of several government databases to ensure their citizenship status, a process which would be set up by each individual state.
In order to vote in the United States, you have to prove you were born here and if you can’t, we’ll even let you sign that you were and will take the time to prove it for you.
As of today, the SAVE America Act cannot pass the Senate for a myriad of reasons God only knows.
Here in Tennessee, HJR0808, presented by Rep. Andrew Farmer (R – Sevierville) is passing through the House Committees with ease, even gaining unanimous support from the House Finance, Ways, and Means Committee on Tuesday.
This bill starts out with the current language of our state Constitution in Article IV, Section 1, “Every person, being eighteen years of age, being a citizen of the United States, being a resident of the State for a period of time as prescribed by the General Assembly, and being duly registered in the county of residence for a period of time prior to the day of any election as prescribed by the General Assembly, shall be entitled to vote in all federal, state, and local elections held in the county or district in which such person resides. All such requirements shall be equal and uniform across the state, and there shall be no other qualification attached to the right of suffrage.”
It seeks to add, “No person who is not a citizen of the United States shall be entitled to vote in any election held in this state, including elections for state, county, municipal, or district offices, or for any ballot measure, referendum, or other question submitted to the people.”
As a state, we are attempting to amend our Constitution to ensure only citizens are allowed to vote in our elections.
The bill continues, as is also already in the Constitution, “The General Assembly shall have the power to enact laws requiring voters to vote in the election precincts in which they may reside, and laws to secure the freedom of elections and the purity of the ballot box.”
Here’s what’s interesting. Notice the Constitution says “being a resident of the State for a period of time as prescribed by the General Assembly” and “being duly registered in the county of residence for a period of time prior to the day of any election”.
HB851/SB1029 by Representative Michele Reneau (R-Signal Mountain) and Senator Janice Bowling (R- Tullahoma) found that Tennessee has a law on our books that directly contradicts what the Constitution says.
TCA 2-6-502 (g) states: (g) A United States citizen who was born abroad and who is eligible to vote and who has never lived in the United States may register temporarily and vote in the county where a parent would be eligible to temporarily register and vote pursuant to this section.
https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-2/chapter-6/part-5/section-2-6-502/
The Constitution, as seen in Rep. Farmer’s bill above, states “being a resident of the State for a period of time as prescribed by the General Assembly”.
HB851/SB1029 sought to put our UOCAVA law in agreement with the State Constitution by removing “who has never lived in the United States”.
The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (or UOCAVA) ensures that those serving in our military, as uniformed service members, are still able to exercise their right to vote, even though they are stationed overseas. HB851/SB1029 was not seeking to change that.
It also allows those who are residents of a state to vote from abroad, despite how long they have been living internationally and if they have any intent to return.
Unfortunately, it also allows children who were born abroad, to US citizens, upon turning 18 to vote in federal, state and local elections. Our local elections, sometimes determined by a very small margin, can be swayed by voters who have never resided in the county, even though the Tennessee Constitution says otherwise.
The bill failed.
Only two Republicans supported having an election law be re-written to support our Constitution, Senator Lowe and Senator Roberts.
The other Republicans voted against it. Senator Briggs, Senator Gardenhire, Senator Hatcher, Senator Jackson and Senator Walley.
These five Republicans, including 2 Democrats, voted AGAINST aligning a very practical law to our Constitution.
In the 2024 elections, 14,102 ballots were sent to overseas citizens of Tennessee. 11,374 were transmitted back to our state to be counted. 10,937 of those were counted, 437 were rejected.
We know that of the total number of UOCAVA voters, 51% of them are not uniformed citizens, but are Tennessee citizens living abroad for other reasons. They may or may not be residents and they may or may not have ever lived in one of our 95 counties. The state does not make this data available.
But what we do know, is the current practice of UOCAVA ballots in Tennessee is not Constitutional.
As of this week, the Republican National Convention is currently suing 4 states, Virginia, Arizona, Michigan and North Carolina, for the exact same policy, allowing non-residents to vote in elections. Tennessee will surely be added to the list.
If the Coordinator of Elections, Mark Goins, had not worked to keep this bill from moving forward, we may not have to use our tax dollars to pay for a future lawsuit from such a large organization.
Unfortunately, this brings us back to HB1971/SB1958 which requires citizens to prove harm before shedding light on unconstitutional laws in our state. We have an unconstitutional law on our books, but we can do nothing about it and five Republican Senators just proved they won’t fight to change it either.
If Representative Farmer’s bill passes, to include a citizenship requirement to our election law, why would we expect our legislators to follow it? What is the point of having a Constitution if we aren’t making laws which enforce it?
Election Integrity in Tennessee and the Case of Non-Resident Voters
If you were to ask anyone, Republican or Democrat, what are the top 3 things they are following on a federal level, one answer would be the SAVE America Act.
The SAVE Act is an acronym for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act and Ii case you haven’t had time to read the bill yourself, here’s the gist:
You need to prove your citizenship to vote. You can use a REAL ID, a passport, a military ID card, or a government-issued photo ID card indicating the place of birth. If you don’t have those, but have a government-issued photo ID card that does not indicate the place of birth, such as a driver’s license, you can bring that in addition to a birth certificate, a statement from the United States hospital proving your record of birth, a final adoption decree, a statement from another country indicating the citizen was born to US citizens, a naturalization certificate or an American Indian card.
If by some chance a person is unable to provide the needed proof, they can sign an affidavit stating they are a citizen of the United States and their name can be run through one of several government databases to ensure their citizenship status, a process which would be set up by each individual state.
In order to vote in the United States, you have to prove you were born here and if you can’t, we’ll even let you sign that you were and will take the time to prove it for you.
As of today, the SAVE America Act cannot pass the Senate for a myriad of reasons God only knows.
Here in Tennessee, HJR0808, presented by Rep. Andrew Farmer (R – Sevierville) is passing through the House Committees with ease, even gaining unanimous support from the House Finance, Ways, and Means Committee on Tuesday.
This bill starts out with the current language of our state Constitution in Article IV, Section 1, “Every person, being eighteen years of age, being a citizen of the United States, being a resident of the State for a period of time as prescribed by the General Assembly, and being duly registered in the county of residence for a period of time prior to the day of any election as prescribed by the General Assembly, shall be entitled to vote in all federal, state, and local elections held in the county or district in which such person resides. All such requirements shall be equal and uniform across the state, and there shall be no other qualification attached to the right of suffrage.”
It seeks to add, “No person who is not a citizen of the United States shall be entitled to vote in any election held in this state, including elections for state, county, municipal, or district offices, or for any ballot measure, referendum, or other question submitted to the people.”
As a state, we are attempting to amend our Constitution to ensure only citizens are allowed to vote in our elections.
The bill continues, as is also already in the Constitution, “The General Assembly shall have the power to enact laws requiring voters to vote in the election precincts in which they may reside, and laws to secure the freedom of elections and the purity of the ballot box.”
Here’s what’s interesting. Notice the Constitution says “being a resident of the State for a period of time as prescribed by the General Assembly” and “being duly registered in the county of residence for a period of time prior to the day of any election”.
HB851/SB1029 by Representative Michele Reneau (R-Signal Mountain) and Senator Janice Bowling (R- Tullahoma) found that Tennessee has a law on our books that directly contradicts what the Constitution says.
TCA 2-6-502 (g) states: (g) A United States citizen who was born abroad and who is eligible to vote and who has never lived in the United States may register temporarily and vote in the county where a parent would be eligible to temporarily register and vote pursuant to this section.
https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-2/chapter-6/part-5/section-2-6-502/
The Constitution, as seen in Rep. Farmer’s bill above, states “being a resident of the State for a period of time as prescribed by the General Assembly”.
HB851/SB1029 sought to put our UOCAVA law in agreement with the State Constitution by removing “who has never lived in the United States”.
The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (or UOCAVA) ensures that those serving in our military, as uniformed service members, are still able to exercise their right to vote, even though they are stationed overseas. HB851/SB1029 was not seeking to change that.
It also allows those who are residents of a state to vote from abroad, despite how long they have been living internationally and if they have any intent to return.
Unfortunately, it also allows children who were born abroad, to US citizens, upon turning 18 to vote in federal, state and local elections. Our local elections, sometimes determined by a very small margin, can be swayed by voters who have never resided in the county, even though the Tennessee Constitution says otherwise.
The bill failed.
Only two Republicans supported having an election law be re-written to support our Constitution, Senator Lowe and Senator Roberts.
The other Republicans voted against it. Senator Briggs, Senator Gardenhire, Senator Hatcher, Senator Jackson and Senator Walley.
These five Republicans, including 2 Democrats, voted AGAINST aligning a very practical law to our Constitution.
In the 2024 elections, 14,102 ballots were sent to overseas citizens of Tennessee. 11,374 were transmitted back to our state to be counted. 10,937 of those were counted, 437 were rejected.
We know that of the total number of UOCAVA voters, 51% of them are not uniformed citizens, but are Tennessee citizens living abroad for other reasons. They may or may not be residents and they may or may not have ever lived in one of our 95 counties. The state does not make this data available.
But what we do know, is the current practice of UOCAVA ballots in Tennessee is not Constitutional.
As of this week, the Republican National Convention is currently suing 4 states, Virginia, Arizona, Michigan and North Carolina, for the exact same policy, allowing non-residents to vote in elections. Tennessee will surely be added to the list.
If the Coordinator of Elections, Mark Goins, had not worked to keep this bill from moving forward, we may not have to use our tax dollars to pay for a future lawsuit from such a large organization.
Unfortunately, this brings us back to HB1971/SB1958 which requires citizens to prove harm before shedding light on unconstitutional laws in our state. We have an unconstitutional law on our books, but we can do nothing about it and five Republican Senators just proved they won’t fight to change it either.
If Representative Farmer’s bill passes, to include a citizenship requirement to our election law, why would we expect our legislators to follow it? What is the point of having a Constitution if we aren’t making laws which enforce it?
Like this article?
Anne Lowery
Anne Lowery