Introduction

Over 5.3 million Tennessee residents are part of the Citizen Age Voting Population (CVAP),1 yet more than 2.3 million eligible Tennesseans are what we describe as “missing voters”: U.S. citizens aged 18 and over who have not voted in the past three general federal elections. Year after year, Tennessee has some of the lowest voter turnout in the country. In the 2020 presidential election, only four states had lower turnout.2 And in 2022, Tennessee had the worst youth voter turnout in the entire country.3

Tennessee also lags behind most of the country in voter registration rate, placing in the bottom 10 states as of 2022.4 Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett has blamed low voter turnout on the lack of competitive elections and “people just not placing the priority on going to vote.”5 There’s no doubt the lack of competition is partially to blame.6 In the 2022 midterm elections, 53% of state legislator races had no challengers.7 However, our analysis reveals that it’s not the whole story.

What we found was not a disinterested electorate, but voters thwarted from exercising their fundamental right to vote...

In this report, Dēmos and Organize Tennessee analyze who Tennessee’s 2.3 million “missing voters” are and some of their reasons for not voting. We obtained and analyzed available data on the citizen voting age population in Tennessee, with a focus on 12 specific counties. What we found was not a disinterested electorate, but voters thwarted from exercising their fundamental right to vote due to systemic underinvestment and discriminatory voter suppression laws aimed primarily at Tennessee’s Black and brown communities. Tennessee provides a useful case study in understanding the racialized impacts of structural voter suppression laws and tactics.

We present our findings in two parts. The first part of this report provides a description of missing voters across Tennessee, an analysis of statewide barriers to voting, and recommendations to increase registration and turnout across the state. In the second part, we examine missing voters in Organize Tennessee’s 12 priority counties (Davidson, Knox, Fayette, Hamilton, Haywood, Madison, Montgomery, Rutherford, Shelby, Sumner, Williamson, and Wilson). This two-part analysis provides a rich account of the structural barriers that are shaping low voter turnout in Tennessee and sheds light on a path forward for Tennessee and other similarly situated states.

Download the full report