NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Tennessee officials say they “cannot feasibly implement” a quick shift to let all voters cast their ballots by mail in the 2020 elections, an outcome sought in three lawsuits due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In Davidson County Chancery Court on Friday, Attorney General Herbert Slatery listed off several arguments against the change, saying there are numerous barriers to rapidly implementing statewide absentee voting; other states’ experiences suggest that absentee voting is “fraught with opportunities for error”; and even an unsuccessful try at setting up universal by-mail voting will cost the state millions of dollars.
The filing pushes back on one of the lawsuits, which argue that letting people all vote by mail eliminates the risk of catching COVID-19 or unknowingly spreading it at the polls without showing symptoms. Tennessee is one of several states that have faced lawsuits seeking to let all voters cast ballots by mail. President Donald Trump has been a vocal opponent of universal absentee voting.
Tennessee has more than a dozen categories that qualify someone for an absentee ballot, from being sick to being 60 or older. Quarantining due to potential exposure to the virus or testing positive are valid excuses, the state has said. But Tennessee officials also make clear that being afraid of contracting or spreading COVID-19 are not valid reasons, arguing that kind of expansion for this year would be “detrimental to the public interest.”
“As a result, the practical effect of Plaintiffs’ requested relief is likely to be the functional disenfranchisement of thousands of voters across the State, lost confidence in the outcomes of the upcoming elections, and immense strain on State and county resources,” Slatery wrote in response to the lawsuit led by the Memphis voting rights group #UpTheVote901.