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Senate committee advances bill to restore voter list maintenance option; debate centers on removing inactive voters after two election cycles
Summary
The State and Local Government Committee advanced Senate Bill 626 after debate on whether officials should be allowed to remove voters from rolls after two federal elections of inactivity. Elections Coordinator Mark Goins and lawmakers exchanged views on how the process would work and on safeguards for voters.
The State and Local Government Committee advanced a bill that would restore a process for removing inactive voters from Tennessee’s voter rolls and add upfront cross-checks when people register.
The legislation, Senate Bill 626 as amended, would allow county election commissions to work with the state coordinator of elections and state agencies to verify new registrations and resume a voter-list maintenance approach that removes a person after they fail to respond to an address-confirmation notice and then have no activity for two subsequent federal elections (a period the state’s elections coordinator described as approximately eight years).
Committee members spent most of the discussion asking whether the change would risk disenfranchising valid voters. Senator Yarbrough asked why two missed elections should justify removal and raised concerns about voters who might be valid but temporarily inactive. Mark Goins, Coordinator of Elections, told the panel that the process would preserve notice and opportunity to respond: “If you... don’t confirm your address and you don’t have any activity for two more election cycles... then you’ll be removed,” Goins said, describing the existing notification steps and the ordinary eight-year timeline used previously.
Goins said the process is intended as list maintenance to detect people who have moved, not to block eligible voters. He told the committee the U.S. Supreme Court had previously upheld a similar option after the Sixth Circuit had limited it in another state. Several senators pressed for clarification about how federal executive guidance and the department practices might interact with the proposed law.
After discussion, the committee voted to pass SB 626 as amended. The motion recorded 7 ayes and 2 no votes and the bill was moved to the calendar.
Why it matters: The bill returns a list‑maintenance tool to Tennessee counties that election administrators say helps keep voter rolls current. Critics worry the restored measure could cause eligible voters to be removed if notice procedures fail or if the process is not well-publicized.
What comes next: The bill will go to the committee of the calendar and then to the Senate calendar for further consideration; implementation questions and interactions with federal guidance were flagged for follow-up by lawmakers.
Sources: Remarks on SB 626 from Mark Goins, Coordinator of Elections; questions and statements from members of the State and Local Government Committee during the hearing.
