AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 2, relative to elections.
SB0348 would significantly tighten Tennessee’s voter registration and voter-roll maintenance rules by requiring proof of U.S. citizenship for new voter registrations submitted on or after July 1, 2025. The bill specifies acceptable citizenship documents, including a birth certificate, U.S. passport, naturalization papers, or another federally recognized proof-of-citizenship document. It also requires the state coordinator of elections to regularly compare the voter registration database with state and federal databases, including the Department of Safety, SAVE, Social Security, naturalization, public assistance, public health, and county records, to identify non-citizens who may be registered.
The bill further creates a verification and challenge process for already-registered voters whose citizenship is questioned. County election commissions must notify such voters by certified mail, and the voter must provide proof of citizenship within 30 days. If proof is not provided, the voter is removed from the registration database, though the county must preserve the person’s registration and voting history. A voter may appeal to the State Election Commission, which must hold a hearing, make findings, and issue a final order determining citizenship and voting eligibility. The bill also makes the voter registration application expressly require an attestation of citizenship and valid Social Security number under penalty of perjury.
SB0348 would amend Tennessee Code Annotated Title 2 by adding a citizenship-document requirement for voter registration, expanding state election officials’ authority and duty to cross-check voter rolls against multiple databases, and establishing a formal removal-and-appeal process for voters whose citizenship cannot be verified. It would also change the voter registration form to include explicit eligibility attestations and would require election officials to use the revised form to help ensure compliance with the new citizenship-verification rules. The bill takes effect July 1, 2025, and would affect applicants, registered voters flagged for review, county election commissions, the coordinator of elections, and the State Election Commission.
No committee transcripts or recorded votes were provided, so the bill’s sentiment cannot be measured from discussion or roll call history in the supplied materials. Based on the text alone, the measure appears to reflect a strong emphasis on election integrity and citizenship verification. The absence of recorded opposition or support in the provided context means no formal consensus or controversy can be inferred from the legislative record here.
The main points of contention likely concern the burden and accuracy of citizenship verification, the use of multiple government databases to identify non-citizens, and the risk of removing eligible voters who cannot timely produce documents. The bill’s requirement that voters prove citizenship after being flagged, along with the possibility of provisional ballots not being counted until verification is complete, could raise concerns among voting-rights advocates about disenfranchisement, administrative error, and access barriers. Supporters would likely argue that the bill strengthens election security and prevents non-citizen registration, while critics would likely focus on documentation hurdles, privacy issues, and the potential for mistaken purges.