NASHVILLE - Two civil rights organizations are canvassing the state with town hall meetings - including one Thursday in Jackson - to explain a new election law intended to make it easier for felons to restore their voting rights.But even advocates of the bill passed in May say Tennessee still has one of the most restrictive and confusing procedures for allowing former felons to regain the right to vote.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee and the state conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have meetings scheduled this week in Jackson, Clarksville and Murfreesboro. The Jackson meeting will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday in the Madison County Agricultural Complex Auditorium, at 309 North Parkway.
The meetings consist of representatives from local bar associations and county election officials, along with former felons and members of the National Right to Vote campaign.
The League of Women Voters in Tennessee also will be at the meetings to help former felons begin the process to restore their voting rights.
"For many of these people, if they start before Oct. 7, they'll be ready to vote in the Nov. 7 election," said Terry McMoore, spokesman for the Tennessee NAACP.
Denver Schimming, 48, of Goodlettsville, is a former felon convicted of bank robbery who campaigned at the Capitol to get the new bill passed. He is one of the planned speakers at the meeting in Jackson.
Schimming said voting allows ex-felons to take control of and responsibility for their lives after they've completed their sentences.
"You don't have to let your felony conviction define your life," said Schimming, who had his rights restored after completing his sentence in 1996. "You don't have to be a failure the rest of your life. You can get back into the mainstream and make your voice heard."
The bill was a compromise that permanently denied voting rights for more types of felons and placed financial obstacles in the process to register, said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU in Tennessee.
"What I continue to emphasize is that this is a first step," Weinberg said. "We had to be practical. There was lots of debate and dialogue about what we were willing give up in order to get a streamlined process."
In the past, some former felons had to go to court and often had to pay attorney fees to restore their voting rights. Under the new rules, all former felons can bypass the court and complete a certificate of restoration at county election commission offices.
But the bill also expanded the felonies that permanently prohibit a person from ever voting. Starting July 1, anyone convicted of a sexual offense will not be eligible to restore voting rights. Previously only felons convicted of rape were excluded.
Also added late in the legislative process were two provisions of the bill that require former felons to be current on child support payments and to pay any financial restitution that is part of their sentences.
"When the bill was first introduced, it only required completion of sentences, probation and parole," Weinberg said. "The child support provision is unfair and penalizes poor mothers and fathers, who may never have the money to buy back their franchise."
Under the new requirements, the county circuit court where the felon was convicted verifies the restitution has been paid and the Department of Human Services verifies the child support payments.
"We are in the process of identifying individuals who were adversely affected by the child support provision," Weinberg said. "We are committed to righting this wrong, either by seeing it repealed, or going into court and challenging it."
The NAACP and the ACLU estimate there are 98,000 convicted felons in the state of Tennessee. The state Division of Elections does not have a count of how many felons have had their voting rights restored.
The changes to the felony voting law only apply to convictions after May 18, 1981. Felons who were convicted between Jan. 15, 1973, and May 17, 1981, are allowed to register to vote, regardless of the type of conviction. Felons convicted prior to Jan. 15, 1973, have a different set of rules regarding felony voting rights.