If mailing address 'none,' can homeless still vote?

_____Today's Top Stories_____

• Third inmate arrested after tip
• Tallent's lawyers: Officers may be at fault in own deaths
• If mailing address 'none,' can homeless still vote?
• Woman charged with helping jail escapee
• Juror shortage worries court officials
• Fired Muslim truck driver sues employer

MT/MLT

Nurse Practitoner or Physician Assistant

Never let a good business go unnoticed

All Top Jobs

E-Mail This Article

Printer-Friendly (text only)

Subscribe to The Tennessean

 
 
By BRAD SCHRADE
and ANNE PAINE
Staff Writers

Election official, Law Department in Metro disagree

If you're homeless and live in Tennessee, you don't need a mailing address to register to vote, according to an opinion by the Metro Law Department.

But a Republican Davidson County election commissioner disagrees and is calling for an inquiry into alleged problems with the county's voting rolls.

Commissioner Lynn Greer said a mailing address is the only way to get a voter verification card to a person, so a voter without a mailing address should be placed on inactive rolls.

The focus on homeless voters emerged this week when Greer raised questions about up to 40,000 voters who are classified as active voters but who he said should be inactive.

Among them was a specific example of 52 voters who he said are registered with an address that is now a parking lot. The lot was the former address of the Nashville Rescue Mission on Seventh Avenue South, but the mission moved to a new location in 2001.

''How are you going to send them their voter registration card or a notice that their district has changed if they don't have a mailing address?'' Greer said.

A June 16 recommendation by Metro Law Department attorney Laura Barkenbus Fox says that isn't necessary.

Fox wrote that a ''mailing address is not required by state law.'' The only requirement is an ''address where you live'' which could be a ''street address or a description of a location.''

That means that giving the description of a spot under the Shelby Avenue Bridge, for instance, would suffice.

Greer issued a three-page memo at a commission meeting Monday that raised several questions that, if true, suggests the county's voter rolls are in disarray just months before state and federal elections.

He said his information is based on the election office's database, which is an open public record, and reports from staff members.

Davidson County Election Administrator Michael McDonald said he was not prepared to comment in detail until his office is able to review the data that Greer is using and the issues he raised. McDonald said he hopes to have all the questions answered soon.

The election commission mailed verification cards in the past year to 303,000 registered voters as part of an effort to confirm their voting status in the county, McDonald said.

If Greer's data is correct, about 50 people who remained on the rolls of ''active'' voters at the defunct 7th Avenue South address of the Nashville Rescue Mission should be ped, McDonald said.

Almost all of those using that address registered to vote in the 1990s, but only 10 have ever voted, according to Greer's documents. One man registered in October 2002 using the 129 Seventh Ave. S. address. That was a year after the mission moved. That man has not voted since registering, according to the documents.

Greer said that before verification cards were mailed, 75 ''active'' voters were listed at this address. Afterward, 52 were left on the new, d tally. All 75 should have been moved to ''inactive'' status, he said, because it isn't likely any received a card sent to that address. The commission should have gotten them all back as ''undeliverable,'' he said.

''How much credibility does the address verification program have if 52 out of 75 known inaccurate addresses were not 'detected' by the address verification program and are still in the database?'' Greer wrote in his memo.

Once a voter is placed on ''inactive'' status, he or she can still vote. However, the voter must give the new address to the commission or provide it when they come to vote. If they don't vote for two November elections in a row, they are supposed to be purged completely from the voter rolls.

Staff at the Nashville Rescue Mission, now located a few blocks away at 639 Lafayette St., recognized the names on Greer's list of 52, but said they were no longer there. Doug Crawford and Frank Kuntz pored over it yesterday announcing most as ''gone.''

They had been regulars at the mission in earlier years, they said, but haven't been seen lately.

Voters without homes

• Tennessee election laws do not require that a qualified voter live in a building in order to register to vote. However, a homeless person must give a description of the location of his habitation, which is sufficient for the registrar to determine the voter's precinct because voters may vote only in the precincts in which they reside. T.C.A. 2-2-122.

• If a homeless person attempts to register by mail, he or she should provide a mailing address at which mail may be received. The commission is required to mail registration cards to mailing addresses shown on by-mail applications. If the card is returned as undeliverable, after two mailing attempts the registration becomes void. T.C.A. 2-2-115.

• A homeless person should keep the commission office informed of a current mailing address that is regularly checked. For example, a homeless voter may be able to use a shelter as a mailing address. Another option is to use General Delivery as a mailing address. T.C.A. 2-2-106.

Reasons a voter is ped from rolls

Once registered to vote in the state, people remain on the rolls unless the election commission removes their names for one of the following reasons:

• The voter requests it.

• The commission learns a voter has had a name change for 90 days or more — except by marriage — and the voter didn't notify the election commission.

• The voter dies.

• The commission gets official notice that the voter has been convicted of an infamous crime.

• Written confirmation is received that the voter moved outside the county or has registered to vote in another jurisdiction.

• The voter fails to respond to a confirmation notice and fails to otherwise voter registration over two consecutive regular November elections, following the date the notice was first sent.