The midterm elections are approaching across the United States, and Tennessee will be selecting a new governor and senator.
The state’s gubernational candidates are Karl Dean, Democrat, and Bill Lee, Republican. The candidates for Senator are Phil Bresdesen, Democrat, and Marsha Blackburn, Republican.
The Senate race in Tennessee is hotly contended, and Eric Groenendyk, a political science professor at the University of Memphis, said participating in this election by voting is what our system of government is all about.
“Voting is the essence of democracy,” Groenendyk said. “It is the method by which citizens hold government accountable.”
To be eligible to vote in Tennessee, voters must be a citizen of the U.S., a resident of Tennessee and 18 years of age or older on or before the date of the next election. They must not have been convicted of a felony, or if they have, their voting rights must have been restored.
An unregistered resident must complete either an online voter registration or download a Tennessee voter registration application and submit the application to a local county election commission. To participate in an election, a qualified voter must be properly registered no later than 30 days before the election. The election commission office will process any voter registration form they receive via mail that has been postmarked at least 30 days before the election.
“Participating in elections moves our society along,” Neal Palmer, a professor of history and political science at Christian Brothers University said.
“We live in a democracy, and it only functions if everyone participates,” Palmer said. “In my experience with younger people is that they don’t really see much point in the whole process. I think that they are kind of apathetic and they’ll avoid anything related to that. I feel that they don’t see any point to it.”
Economic and privilege barriers can also inhibit people from registering to vote, according to Palmer.
“I would assume that young and poor people are less likely to be registered,” Palmer said. “The younger you are and the poorer you are, the more I would assume you are not registered.”
Palmer also said focusing on one issue younger voters care about will help them see the importance of voting.
“I think the best approach to get more people to vote would have to be to try to identify some issue that the person is actually interested in and then use that as a means to convince them that they can help make that possible by voting,” Palmer said.
Palmer said being registered to vote is important, but that obstacles exist for some people.
“I know that there are things in place that put obstacles in the way of people trying to vote or registering in the first place, whether it’s having a photo ID or being afraid of the government,” Palmer said. “Possibly if someone has an illegal status in some way, they may not want to be registered.”
Currently, 17 states and the District of Columbia offer same-day voter registration, but Tennessee does not offer that service.
Tennessee voters will cast their votes for candidates for governor, United States Senate and House of Representatives, Tennessee Senate and House of Representatives and the State Executive Committee on Nov. 6. The deadline to register to vote for the upcoming state and federal general elections in Tennessee is Oct. 9.
