Tennessee ranks 45th in the nation in voter turnout, so one would think that our elected officials would be working day and night to change that, right? WRONG! It seems as if a majority of Tennessee State Representatives actually want to keep voter turnout down! HB-1079 passed in the Tennessee House yesterday. The bill penalizes voter registration organizations if they turn in over 500 incomplete forms and fines could reach up to $10,000, which is a LOT of money for a non-profit organization to come up with. In addition, the potential law would require groups to submit forms within 10 days and prohibit out of state poll watchers. If too many incomplete forms, etc. was a problem, why not just make voter registration automatic for eligible Tennesseans over the age of 18? Why does it seem that many Tennessee State Reps are scared of a high voter turnout? This is America, isn't voting a good thing? Shouldn't we make voting as easy of a process as possible?
Here are the names of the representatives that votes yes to HB-1079:
Charlie Baum R, Clark Boyd R, Rush Bricken R, David Byrd R, Kent Calfee R, Dale Carr R, Scott Cepicky R, Mark Cochran R, Jim Coley R, John Crawford R, Michael Curcio R, Martin Daniel R, Clay Doggett R, Bill Dunn R, Rick Eldridge R, Jeremy Faison R, Andrew Farmer R, Ron Gant R, Johnny Garrett R, Bruce Griffey R, Curtis Halford R, Mark Hall R, Kirk Haston R, David Hawk R, Patsy Hazlewood R, Esther Helton R, Gary Hicks R, Matthew Hill R, Timothy Hill R, John Holsclaw R, Andy Holt R, Dan Howell R, Bud Hulsey R, Chris Hurt R, Curtis Johnson R, Kelly Keisling R, Sabi Kumar R, Justin Lafferty R, William Lamberth R, Tom Leatherwood R, Mary Littleton R, Susan Lynn R, Pat Marsh R, Jerome Moon R, Brandon Ogles R, Dennis Powers R, John Ragan R, Bob Ramsey R, Jay Reedy R, Tim Rudd R, Iris Rudder R, Lowell Russell R, Bill Sanderson R, Cameron Sexton R, Jerry Sexton R, Paul Sherrell R, Robin Smith R, Mike Sparks R, Bryan Terry R, Rick Tillis R, Chris Todd R, Ron Travis R, James Van Huss R, Kevin Vaughan R, Terri Weaver R, Mark White R, Sam Whitson R, Ryan Williams R, Dave Wright R, Jason Zachary R, Mr. Speaker Casada R