40-29-203 - Certificate of voting rights restoration. - Tennessee Statutes

40-29-203. Certificate of voting rights restoration.

(a)  A person eligible to apply for a voter registration card and have the right of suffrage restored, pursuant to § 40-29-202, may request, and then shall be issued, a certificate of voting rights restoration upon a form prescribed by the coordinator of elections, by:

     (1)  The pardoning authority;

     (2)  The warden or an agent or officer of the incarcerating authority; or

     (3)  A parole officer or another agent or officer of the supervising authority.

(b)  (1)  Any authority issuing a certificate of voting rights restoration pursuant to subsection (a) shall forward a copy of the certificate to the coordinator of elections.

     (2)  The issuing authority shall also supply the person being released with a written statement explaining the purpose and effect of the certificate of voting rights restoration and explaining the procedure by which the person may use the certificate to apply for and receive a voter registration card and become eligible to vote.

(c)  A certificate of voting rights restoration issued pursuant to subsection (a) shall be sufficient proof that the person named on the certificate is no longer disqualified from voting by reason of having been convicted of an infamous crime.

(d)  Any person issued a certificate of voting rights restoration pursuant to this section shall submit the certificate to the administrator of elections of the county in which the person is eligible to vote. The administrator of elections shall send the certificate to the coordinator of elections who shall verify that the certificate was issued in compliance with this section. Upon determining that the certificate complies with the provisions of this section, the coordinator shall notify the appropriate administrator of elections and, after determining that the person is qualified to vote in that county by using the same verification procedure used for any applicant, the administrator shall grant the application for a voter registration card. The administrator shall issue a voter registration card and the card shall be mailed to the applicant in the same manner as provided for any newly issued card.

[Acts 2006, ch. 860, § 1.]