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Press Release – Franklin, TN — Following President Trump’s address exposing compromised elections, including foreign data theft, voting machine weaknesses, and fraudulent registrations, TN Fair Elections urged Governor Bill Lee and legislative leaders to immediately benchmark Tennessee’s election laws against the Model Election Laws Handbook and pass comprehensive reforms this session. For six years, our poll watchers, citizen auditors, and observers have documented systemic weaknesses in Tennessee that mirror the national issues the President highlighted.
Key vulnerabilities observed in Tennessee
● Machine-Generated Ballots and Vote Center Problems : QR/Bar Codes and cash register type paper is not a voter verifiable ballot since the voter cannot validate their choice is captured in a machine.
● E-poll books: Voter data contained on these systems have been proven to be hackable, creating vulnerabilities for personal information to bad actors.
● Permanent Absentee Voter List and Excuse-Only Failures: Tennessee maintains a permanent absentee voter list designating age a valid excuse to vote by mail. This has allowed thousands of voters to receive mail ballots year after year with little to no verification creating a vector for abuse and identity theft.
● Tennessee “Never Resided” Overseas Voters: Citizen audits have identified overseas voters registered in Tennessee who never actually resided in the state. These registrations bypass the TN State Constitution as well as normal residency requirements and enable improper absentee voting with minimal oversight
● Voter Roll and Registration Irregularities: Despite the high cost to the public to access voter rolls, repeated audits have identified deceased voters, and duplicate registrations persisting on Tennessee’s rolls. The President’s release of data has indicated roughly 38K deceased voters still on the Tennessee voter rolls.
● Refusal to allow counties to access data from S.A.V.E.: Access to this system assists counties with identifying both deceased and non-citizens on the voter rolls. ● Voting Equipment and Transparency Failures. Observers documented machine glitches, limited paper trails, and resistance to meaningful audits or public access to cast vote records and poll tapes.
“President Trump’s address confirmed what Tennessee citizens have documented for more than six years,” said Aundrea Gomez, Co-Chair of TN Fair Elections. “The evidence is now public, the solutions already exist, and the Department of Homeland Security has established clear priorities for states that want to strengthen election security. Tennessee should lead by acting now.”
Proven solutions already exist in the Model Election Laws Handbook, which provides ready-to-use statutory language based on the U.S. Citizens Elections Bill of Rights. Key reforms include:
● Secure hand-marked paper ballots and bans on vulnerable foreign-connected technology
● Strict mail ballot rules with no curing, same-night reporting, and enforcement of excuse-only absentee voting
● Proof of citizenship, rigorous voter roll maintenance, and elimination of improper “never resided” registrations
● Full transparency and citizen enforcement with real penalties
President Trump’s directive, coupled with the Department of Homeland Security’s new election security funding requirements, signals a clear shift toward stronger election integrity standards nationwide.
The priorities identified by DHS, including citizenship verification, secure hand-marked paper ballots, post-election audits, ballot reconciliation, and greater transparency, mirror many of the reforms TN Fair Elections has long advocated through the Model Election Laws Handbook.
Tennessee should seize this opportunity to modernize its election laws and address documented vulnerabilities before the next election cycle. TN Fair Elections is prepared to deliver model bill language, expert testimony, and coalition support.
We call on Governor Lee and the Tennessee General Assembly to review Tennessee’s statutes against the Handbook immediately and enact reforms before the next election cycle.
TN Fair Elections is a nonpartisan grassroots network of citizens dedicated to honest, transparent, and accurate elections. We are affiliated with the national Election Integrity Network and support the Model Election Laws Handbook.
