Sullivan Co. Election Officials Say Felons May Have Voted Illegally

BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. – Sullivan County elections officials are building a case against a group of 25 to 75 people they claim committed voter fraud during last year’s election cycle.

Election Administrator Jason Booher said most of the people are accused of lying on voter registration forms about their status as convicted felons, and of voting in violation of state election laws.

Both actions constitute voter fraud, Booher said, which is a felony and punishable by one to six years in jail.

"When someone makes an effort to violate the law and commit voter fraud, they’re attacking the foundation of our democracy, and they need to be punished," Booher said Tuesday as he discussed his plans with members of the county Election Commission.

The list
Voting rights for convicted felons vary greatly from state to state according to the American Civil Liberties Union’s Web site. In most states, residents lose their right to vote when they are convicted. Maine and Vermont, however, allow current prisoners, parolees and probationers to vote, according to the ACLU Web site.

In Kentucky and Virginia, convicted felons lose their rights forever.

In Tennessee, after losing their rights automatically on conviction, residents can petition a judge to get their rights back under certain circumstances, including if they’ve been pardoned of their crimes, or if they’ve served their entire sentence and paid court-ordered restitution in full. Those convicted of murder, treason, voter fraud, rape and certain other sexual offenses lose their voting rights forever in Tennessee.

Booher said local election commissions have a duty to ensure their voter roles are up to date. That means purging the lists on a regular basis of people who have died, moved – or lost their voting rights.

As part of the process, Tennessee Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins said, many election administrators work with the local circuit court clerk’s office to keep track of those convicted of felonies. But it can be a difficult task, Goins said, because it’s almost impossible to keep track of every convicted felon in every jurisdiction in the country.

So over the summer, his office compiled a list of people who were convicted of felonies in state and federal courts since the 1990s, but who have not yet had their rights restored. Comparing the lists to voter roles, Goins said, they found 13,000 people who had similar names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth.

"When I first came in to office [February], this is something that I’ve wanted to do," Goins said.

In July, Goins sent his list to local election officials, and told them to focus their efforts on what he called "hard matches," registered voters who had the exact identifying information as convicted felons.

Booher said there are about 200 "hard matches" in Sullivan County. On Tuesday, he told county election commissioners he has divided those "hard matches" into three groups: Those who are registered but have not voted; those who registered before their convictions and voted afterward; and those who registered and voted after their convictions.

The case
The first group, those who are registered but have not voted, have not violated any laws, Booher said.

He is focusing his efforts on the third group of "hard matches" – the 25 to 75 people he said lied on their registration forms when they failed to check the box indicating they were convicted felons and then cast ballots anyway. Booher said this group is especially egregious because they knew that falsifying information on a voter registration form is a felony: The registration form says so in big red letters over its signature box.

When Booher finishes his review in November, he said he will present the third group’s list of names to Sullivan County District Attorney Greeley Wells and ask that they be prosecuted for voter fraud.

The decision on filing charges will be up to Wells and a grand jury, Booher said. Wells could not be reached for comment Tuesday because he was in court most of the day, his staff said.

Booher also might ask Wells to file charges against the second group of "hard matches," those who were already registered, but then voted after their convictions. Those people also committed election fraud, but Booher said they are not entirely at fault because it’s the Election Commission’s duty to keep voter roles up to date.

"There was somewhat of a responsibility on our part," Booher conceded. He said it also is the clerk of circuit court’s responsibility to tell people about the loss of voting rights due to a conviction the moment it happens and "if we don’t receive that notification, then we don’t know."

If Wells does decide to file charges, he won’t be the first. Goins said a grand jury in Lauderdale County, Tenn., has indicted nine people on voter fraud charges based on the information on their voter registration forms.

"I expect there will be more," Goins said.

gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518

Click play above to watch Nate Morabito's video report that aired on 11 Connects Wednesday