Opinion ID: 774302
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Tennessee's Early Voting Statutes

Text: 3 Tennessee holds elections for Members of Congress, United States Senators, Electors for President and Vice President, and various state officers at the regular November election. Tenn. Code Ann. § 2-3-203 (Supp. 2000). Since 1870 the Tennessee Constitution has specified the date for this election as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Said elections shall terminate the same day. Tenn. Const. art. II, § 7. Since 1949 Tennessee law has also allowed those absent on election day from the county in which they are registered to vote to cast ballots by mail prior to election day. Tenn. Code Ann. § 2-6-201. See also Hilliard v. Park, 370 S.W.2d 829 (Tenn. 1963). 4 In 1994 the Tennessee General Assembly enacted a system for early voting to enable registered voters to cast ballots during a specified period prior to the day scheduled for the regular November election. Tennessee's Early Voting Statutes (Early Voting Statutes or TEVS) create a procedure for those wishing to vote prior to election day: 5 A voter who desires to vote early shall go to the county election commission office within the posted hours not more than twenty (20) days nor less than five (5) days before the day of the election. A voter desiring to vote in the early voting period shall sign an application for a ballot. 6 Tenn. Code Ann. § 2-6-102(a)(1) (emphasis added). When an early voter casts a ballot in accordance with the Early Voting Statutes, county election officials do not immediately count the vote; rather, they hold the ballots of early voters until the close of all polling places on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, then record the early votes along with absentee votes. Id. § 2-6-304(e). In contrast to absentee voting, which requires a voter to identify one of a few specifically enumerated reasons for voting absentee, id. §§ 2-6-201, -202, the TEVS allow any registered voter to vote early if he or she wishes. Id. § 2-6-102(a)(1). The Early Voting Statutes clearly set forth the rationale for this system: The purpose of this part is to establish an early voting period when eligible registered voters may vote before an election at the county election commission office or another polling place appropriately designated by the county election commission. Id. § 2-6-101(b) (emphasis added). 7 Early voting has proved to be a popular method for casting ballots. In the 1996 presidential election, 399,317 of the 1,918,156 votes cast in Tennessee, 20.82 percent, were early votes; an additional 35,815 voters, representing 1.86 percent of the total votes cast in Tennessee, voted absentee. In the 2000 presidential election, the number of early votes increased dramatically: 749,170 of the 2,100,241 votes cast, 35.67 percent, were cast early, with an additional 47,954 voters, 2.28 percent, casting absentee ballots. 8