Criminal Procedure

Plain English Breakdown

The bill does not provide details on enforcement mechanisms or specific penalties for non-compliance with the payment plan.

Voting Rights Restoration Act

This bill allows people who owe child support to apply for provisional voting rights if they enter into a payment plan, but their rights can be revoked if they do not follow the plan.

What This Bill Does

• Allows individuals who have unpaid child support obligations to apply for provisional voter registration and restoration of voting rights if they agree to a payment plan.
• Requires courts to provide legal counsel before revoking provisional voting rights if an individual fails to adhere to their payment plan.

Who It Names or Affects

• People with outstanding child support who want to vote provisionally.
• Courts that handle cases related to the restoration and revocation of provisional voting rights.
• The secretary of state, the department of human services, and the administrative office of the courts.

Terms To Know

provisional right

A temporary permission given to someone until they prove they can keep it.

indigency

Being very poor and unable to pay for basic needs.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify the consequences if individuals do not follow their payment plan.
• It is unclear how government agencies will enforce and monitor these new rules.

Official Summary Text

Present law provides that
a person is not eligible to apply for a voter registration card and have the right of suffrage restored unless the person is current in all child support obligations.
Th
is bill revises this provision to, instead, provide that a person is
eligible to apply for a voter registration card and have the right of suffrage provisionally restored if the person enters into a payment plan to become current in all unpaid child suppor
t obligations.
However, if the person willfully fails
to adhere to the terms of
the
payment plan, then the court that provisionally restored the person's right of suffrage
must
revoke the person's provisional right of suffrage. Prior to revoking a person
's provisional right of suffrage, the court
must
provide the person with court-appointed counsel and offer the person the opportunity to be heard and to submit proof of the person's financial inability to pay, which may include a signed affidavit of indige
ncy.

Current Bill Text

HOUSE BILL 1053
By McKenzie

SENATE BILL 1119
By Lamar

SB1119
001346
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AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 40,
Chapter 29, relative to voting rights.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 40-29-202, is amended by deleting
subsection (c) and substituting:
(c)
(1) Notwithstanding subsection (a), a person is not eligible to apply for a
voter registration card and have the right of suffrage restored unless the person
is current in all child support obligations.
(2) Notwithstanding subdivision (c)(1), a person is eligible to apply for a
voter registration card and have the right of suffrage provisionally restored if the
person enters into a payment plan to become current in all unpaid child support
obligations.
(3) If a person willfully fails to adhere to the terms of a payment plan
entered into pursuant to subdivision (c)(2), then the court that provisionally
restored the person's right of suffrage shall revoke the person's provisional right
of suffrage. Prior to revoking a person's provisional right of suffrage, the court
shall provide the person with court-appointed counsel and offer the person the
opportunity to be heard and to submit proof of the person's financial inability to
pay, which may include a signed affidavit of indigency.
SECTION 2. The secretary of state, in consultation with the department of human
services and the administrative office of the courts, is authorized to promulgate rules to

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effectuate the purposes of this act. The rules must be promulgated in accordance with the
Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4,
Chapter 5.
SECTION 3. This act takes effect July 1, 2025, the public welfare requiring it, and
applies to persons applying for a voter registration card on or after that date.