Eleven residents of Sumner County have been charged with illegally registering to vote and illegally voting. Authorities say those charged were ineligible to vote due to felony convictions.
While performing a routine check of the registered voters in Sumner County, election officials said they found that 15 individuals had registered to vote after felony convictions. Four of them are now deceased.
The individuals had not gone through the state’s voter restoration process. As a result, District Attorney Ray Whitley says they committed a crime when filling out the voter registration form and when voting.
“On those papers the question is: Have you ever been convicted of a felony in the state of Tennessee? … And they had apparently checked the box that they were not convicted of any felonies when in fact they were,” said Whitley.
He worked with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to confirm what election officials had found.
The eleven individuals are now facing felony charges, which carry up to a four-year sentence. It’s not clear whether they intentionally provided incorrect information on forms.
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