A decision to deny a man the right to register to vote in Tennessee after receiving clemency in Virginia for a crime he committed in 1986 was upheld by the Tennessee Supreme Court on June 29.
The 3–1 decision (pdf) came after Ernest Falls, a Tennessee resident since 2018, tried to register to vote in 2020 after he was granted clemency by then Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam for an involuntary manslaughter conviction.
The clemency reinstated Mr. Falls’ rights of citizenship in Virginia, but a local election commission in Tennessee did not recognize the automatic restoration of his voting rights, citing “incomplete/insufficient documents” as the reasoning….