Tennessee college students protest voter ID laws
On the eve of Election Day, a cluster of college students gathered outside the Capitol to protest laws they said made it harder for their peers, minorities and the elderly to vote.
During a brief news conference, the group, led by a coalition from historically black universities in Nashville, pushed back against Tennessee's voter identification law which requires voters to present an ID before they cast a ballot.
Poll workers can accept a state-issued ID like a driver's license, a U.S. passport, a military ID or a handgun carry permit with a photo — but not a college student ID.
Justin Jones, an activist and Fisk University student, said he would not be able to vote because he didn't have one of the acceptable IDs. He noted that the same is true for many other Nashville students who are from out of state.
Fisk students have long history of fighting injustice
"Why are we making it easier in Tennessee to get a gun and yet harder to vote?" Jones asked the crowd, alluding to a series of state laws that have loosened restrictions on when and where people can carry firearms.
In a statement, a spokesman for Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett, who oversees elections, said the ID law was "designed to prevent voter fraud while ensuring all registered Tennesseans exercise their right to vote." There is "a mechanism" in place for citizens who cannot afford to pay for valid IDs.
The spokesman, Adam Ghassemi, said that Hargett's office had helped to register more than 7,000 college students in this election cycle "to ensure they are not excluded." Ghassemi said the department also worked with students to host voter registration drives at Fisk and Tennessee State University.
At the news conference, Jones and other students drew a parallel between voter ID laws and the discriminatory laws that segregated the South during the Jim Crow era. They said poor people and minorities were often the ones hit hardest by the law. Jones and other students from Fisk, TSU, Middle Tennessee State University and Vanderbilt University also blasted the state's policy for purging infrequent voters from the voter rolls.
"We know that Jim Crow has children," Jones said a smattering of cheers from about two dozen students. "These are the real issues that exist in this country's election process."
Ghassemi defended the purging process, saying state law required "the removal of voters who are deceased, moved or have been convicted of a felony.”
After the news conference, the students headed to Hargett's office to voice their concerns. Hargett met with the group for about 30 minutes, and although Jones said there were still lingering disagreements, he told The Tennessean it was a "good conversation."
By the end of the day, the students' cause had attracted some star power. During a separate event to raise support for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, actress Ashley Judd pointed to an occasion where a busload of nuns were denied a ballot because they couldn't produce an ID.
"This is a sacred right, and a right of passage," Judd said. "It shouldn't be a harrowing walk from the parking lot to the building."
Though not directly speaking on voter ID laws, Judd said that voting laws historically have been weighted against marginalized voters, or those who may have more difficult access to polling places for a variety of circumstances.
"The way the voting system is set up right now it specifically challenges the votes that have been silenced and historically — 'her'-storically — have mattered the most," she said.
U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, who has been a harsh critic of the voter ID laws in Tennessee and other states, also attended the Monday afternoon event with Judd.
Tennessee’s voter ID law, which passed in 2011, has been upheld in federal court despite objections from a group led by college students who wanted to use their student IDs to cast a ballot.
Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets. Jake Lowary contributed to this report.