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Chattanooga students aim to remove barriers to voting through new bill

Fisher Latham, left, Brevin Sims and Lauren Tolbert pose at Chattanooga School for Arts and Sciences on Friday, March 1, 2019 in Chattanooga, Tenn. The CSAS students participated in the Tennessee Bar Association's CATALYST program through their gifted program. With the help of gifted teacher, Kelly Davis, the group co-authored the bill which addresses voter registration and proposes a program/partnership through the DMV that would make it easier for eligible Tennesseans to register to vote.
Fisher Latham, left, Brevin Sims and Lauren Tolbert pose at Chattanooga School for Arts and Sciences on Friday, March 1, 2019 in Chattanooga, Tenn. The CSAS students participated in the Tennessee Bar Association's CATALYST program through their gifted program. With the help of gifted teacher, Kelly Davis, the group co-authored the bill which addresses voter registration and proposes a program/partnership through the DMV that would make it easier for eligible Tennesseans to register to vote. Fisher Latham, left, Brevin Sims and Lauren Tolbert pose at Chattanooga School for Arts and Sciences on Friday, March 1, 2019 in Chattanooga, Tenn. The CSAS students participated in the Tennessee Bar Association's CATALYST program through their gifted program. With the help of gifted teacher, Kelly Davis, the group co-authored the bill which addresses voter registration and proposes a program/partnership through the DMV that would make it easier for eligible Tennesseans to register to vote.

By Meghan Mangrum 6 min read

A bill that would require every person in Tennessee with a driver’s license to be automatically registered to vote when they turn 18 will appear before the Senate’s State and Local Government Committee on Tuesday.

And traveling to Nashville to speak in the bill’s favor will be three students from Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences.

But they aren’t just pushing the bill because they agree with it.

They wrote it.

Brevin Sims, Fisher Latham and Lauren Tolbert participated in the Tennessee Bar Association’s first annual Catalyst Program this year, which worked with high schools across the state to have students draft bills for sponsorship in the state legislature.