Combating Arbitrary Changes to the Rights Restoration Process in Tennessee (Falls v. Goins II)
At a Glance
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is representing Ernest Falls in a lawsuit seeking to compel Tennessee’s Coordinator of Elections to recognize that his right to vote has been restored and to notify his county election officials of this restoration. Mr. Falls has taken the necessary steps to restore his freedom to vote in Tennessee.
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Ernest Falls is a U.S. citizen and Tennessee resident who wishes to exercise his freedom to vote by registering and voting. In 1986, Mr. Falls was convicted of a single felony in Virginia state court, but he has long since served his sentence.
Since moving to Tennessee six years ago, Mr. Falls has navigated a complex and shifting obstacle course in order to restore his freedom to vote. To date, Mr. Falls has been unable to restore that right despite years of effort, litigation and compliance with ever-changing requirements imposed by the Tennessee Division of Elections, led by the Coordinator of Elections, Mark Goins. Each time Mr. Falls complies with Coordinator Goins’ new and changing requirements, the goalposts move again, keeping Mr. Falls’ right to vote out of reach.
Mr. Falls’ experience highlights the unfairness and absurdity of Tennessee’s felony disenfranchisement process. Nearly half a million Tennesseans with past felony convictions must follow Tennessee’s process for rights restoration to be able to vote again. Election officials can – and do – change the rules frequently and apply the rules differently to different people, and they seem to operate with no checks or oversight on their power. Mr. Falls’ experience shows that there is no justification for these arbitrary rule changes other than voter suppression.
Mr. Falls has met the requirements for voting rights restoration in Tennessee. He now simply seeks for Coordinator Goins to notify local election officials that his voting rights have been restored, as is required under state law. On December 23, 2024, Mr. Falls filed this lawsuit to compel Coordinator Goins to fulfill this requirement so that Mr. Falls can finally exercise his constitutional right to vote in Tennessee.
CLC filed this lawsuit in partnership with Free Hearts and Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison, PLC.
CLC has also challenged Tennessee's unequal, inaccessible, opaque and inaccurate voting rights restoration process in a federal lawsuit brought in 2020.