Biden-Harris DOJ Issues Warning To Tennessee State Election Officials Following Letters Sent to Potential Non-Citizen Voters

Image Credit: Vice President Kamala Harris / Facebook, Joe Biden / Facebook, Canva

The Tennessee Conservative Staff –

The U.S. Department of Justice has issued a warning that could potentially thwart state election officials’ future attempts to verify that all Tennessee voters are legal U.S. citizens.

Back in July, letters were sent by Tennessee’s Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins to 14,375 “potential non-U.S. citizens” in an attempt to obtain proof of citizenship for voters in Tennessee.

The letter began, “Our office has received information that appears to indicate that your voter information matches with an individual who may not have been a United States citizen at the time of obtaining a Tennessee driver license or ID card.”

Individuals were reminded of Tennessee law that states that it is illegal for a non-U.S. citizen to vote in the state and that doing so is a felony.

The letter went on to offer individuals an opportunity to update their information in order to verify that they had gone through the naturalization process and were, in fact, legal citizens who were registered to vote.

Democrats across the state immediately rallied, claiming that Republicans were using “voter intimidation tactics.”

The DOJ’s newly released stipulations instruct state election officials on how voters can be removed from voter lists. They cited federal law prohibiting discrimination, intimidation, threats, and coercion.

They also claimed that the comparison of voter files to “outdated or inaccurate records or databases” could be a violation of the standards in place for federal voter record keeping.

Goins said in July that his team had compared voter registration information with information obtained from the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, making note of those who did not appear to have been U.S. citizens at the time of registration.

However, he also acknowledged that some could have gone through that process later, which is why the letter provided them with a chance to make that correction.

State law does give election officials permission to compare voter rolls with state and federal databases to comply with the laws and make sure non-citizens are not registered.