NASHVILLE - Citing a recent federal court ruling impacting Ohio, the Tennessee League of Women Voters and a public interest law firm are calling on Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett to change current state practices when it comes to purging inactive voters from registration lists.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in September overruled a U.S. district court judge's decision and said Ohio's program, which involved cancelling registrations of citizens who haven't voted in federal elections since 2008 and haven't responded to a letter requesting confirmation of their addresses.
In their 2-to-1 decision, judges said Ohio's law violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
With Tennessee also falling under the 6th Circuit's jurisdiction, League of Women Voters President Marian Ott and Stuart Naifeh, a senior counsel with a New York law firm involved in the Ohio litigation, say Hargett should drop Tennessee's similar method of purging voters from registration lists.
"The League of Women Voters strongly supports efforts to enable all eligible Tennesseans to vote," said League President Ott in a statement. "The law is the law, and Tennessee officials should follow the law and let eligible voters vote. It's just not right to block eligible citizens from voting."
Hargett spokesman Adam Ghassemi did not immediately respond to a reporter's email request seeking comment about the call to drop Tennessee's current practice nor on how many registered citizens have been purged this year.
In a letter to Hargett dated Thursday, Naifeh, the senior counsel with the Demos law firm, said Tennessee is "not in compliance with Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act."
He noted Tennessee law describes a process in which voters who don't vote in a period of "two consecutive November elections" are sent a forwardable confirmation notice. Voters who don't respond to the notice or don't update their registration or vote in the subsequent period "between the time the notice is sent and the second regular November election after the notice was sent" see their registrations purged, Naifeh wrote.
The 6th Circuit, Naifeh wrote, "recently ruled that this type of process violates the NVRA."
"We urge you, as the State's chief election official, to take immediate steps to bring the State into compliance with federal law by directing local election officials to cease and desist from cancelling any voter registration based on voter inactivity and by implementing a process through which the ballots of improperly cancelled voters can be counted," Naifeh's letter says.
He also noted "we are eager to work cooperatively with you to develop a pan for compliance with the NVRA in advance of the 2016 general election."
The election is Nov. 8. Early voting began last Wednesday in Tennessee.
Ott said in an interview today that she sent her own letter to Hargett last week outlining the problem and seeking a meeting with him. She said she has yet to hear back from him.
