Tenn. files appeal against expanded vote-by-mail
The state of Tennessee has filed an appeal to a Nashville judge’s decision that would allow any registered voter in the state to cast a ballot by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The original ruling, made Thursday by Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle required the state to abandon its policy of only issuing absentee ballots in limited circumstances. Those exceptions included allowing vote-bymail for those who are elderly, disabled, traveling away from home or who have had a doctor file a statement about their sickness.
Fear of being exposed to COVID-19 was not a valid reason, and Gov. Bill Lee and Secretary of State Tre Hargett had resisted calls to implement widespread vote-by-mail for anyone seeking it.
Mark Goins, elections coordinator for the Secretary of State, had initially told local election officials Friday morning not to send absentee voting applications yet for people citing illness as a reason while state looked into creating the new application form, the Associated Press reported.
In an email to local election officials later Friday, Goins said his office had “been working all day to ensure compliance,” including updating absentee voting information on the website and creating an updated absentee ballot request form.
“You have determined it is impossible or unreasonable to vote in-person at a polling place due to the COVID-19 situation and therefore qualify as hospitalized, ill, or disabled and unable to appear at your polling place,” the updated form lists as a reason for requesting the ballot.
Goins instructed election officials to “use this language until further notice,” and to use the state’s absentee ballot request form until they can update their own.
In a statement Thursday night after the ruling, the Attorney General’s office voiced opposition to Lyle’s decision, pointing to safety measures the Secre
tary of State’s office already said it would implement in this year’s August and November elections.
“The Court’s ruling, while rightly taking into account the safety of Tennessee’s voters and poll workers, failed to appropriately consider the extensive safety measures of the COVID-19 election plan, and, more importantly, gave little weight to the unanimous expertise of state and county election officials that hastily expanding absentee voting is impracticable and risks disenfranchising Tennessee voters,” the office’s statement said.
In the state’s filing on Friday, Attorney General Herbert Slatery noted the “immense costs of processing a dramatic influx of absentee-ballot requests,” including finding space to store them and hiring ballot counters.
Citing news stories from around the country, the state also pointed to issues with implementation that have taken place in other states that have quickly changed policies to expand absentee voting in light of coronavirus. “The experiences in these States demonstrate the likely consequences of choosing to rapidly implement a system of absentee voting that has taken other States years to adopt,” Slatery wrote.
Lyle, in her ruling, said that “almost all states – both Republican and Democrat,” are allowing for expanded absentee ballots amid the pandemic.
“This includes southern states such as Alabama, South Carolina and Arkansas, and Tennessee‘s neighboring state of Kentucky and nearby West Virginia,” Lyle wrote. “The governors, state officials and legislators in those states have spearheaded efforts to expand access to voting by mail to protect the health of their citizens during the pandemic.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee called Lyle’s decision a “major victory for voting rights.” The organization represented Ben Lay, a Nashville resident who is one of the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit challenging Tennessee’s existing restrictions to voting by mail.