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September 9, 2024 
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Shock. Sadness. Then anger. That was my emotional journey after learning about the state of democracy in Tennessee. Let me explain.
The source of my shock was this: The state, with a population of just over seven million people, stops nearly half a million of them from voting because of felony convictions.
As is the case with so many things, this disenfranchisement is disproportionately impacting the state's Black community. One in five Black adults in Tennessee has lost the right to vote because of a felony conviction. That is the highest rate in the country. Imagine if everyone in the entire city of Chattanooga was not allowed to vote.
This attack on democracy should make us all sad — and angry. While most states take away the right to vote when someone is convicted of a felony, most allow the possibility of restoration after a person has served the sentence. But Tennessee has marched in the opposite direction, making it nearly impossible to restore rights.
Those Americans face a Kafkaesque bureaucratic maze from hell, worthy of our attention.
How impossible is this maze? Of the nearly half-million eligible voters with felony convictions in Tennessee, fewer than 1 percent have successfully restored their rights in the last five years. The reason for that is the subject of this Opinion video. We'll walk you through the maze just so you can see how impossible it is.
Opinion Video has often focused this election cycle on coverage and analysis of the presidential race itself (take, for example, our video last week on the historian Allan Lichtman's latest prediction in a near-perfect 40-year streak of election calls in that race). But today's piece is a reminder: we should not judge the state of American democracy solely on the outcome of one election. The process is just as important.
Watch the video:
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How Tennessee Keeps Nearly Half a Million People From VotingThe state's process for restoring voting rights is a master class in undermining democracy. By Emily Holzknecht and Taige Jensen |
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