A new measure designed to ensure that only U.S. citizens participate in state and federal elections was signed into law this week by the governor of Tennessee.
In signing companion bill HB 2185 on April 21, Gov. Bill Lee enacted the law.
“This bill ensures our electronic systems are modernized to protect the sanctity of the ballot box,” a legislative summary of the bill noted.
The legislation authorizes the state’s election coordinator to verify the voter eligibility of individuals on Tennessee’s voter rolls using an electronic portal.
The portal, however, won't be established until Jan. 1, 2028, and will be designed to disprove or prove the immigration status of registered voters and applicants.
Once active, the portal will be a pathway to the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, which is managed by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The SAVE system is used by government agencies to verify the citizenship and immigration status of individuals applying for benefits, licenses, and increasingly voting privileges.
SB 2204 was sponsored by state Senator Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) and seven other Tennessee Republican lawmakers.
Johnson did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.
Tennessee is the latest to advance stricter voter ID laws as President Donald Trump’s federal Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act remains stalled in the U.S. Senate.
Without the student ID option, students must now provide a passport or a New Hampshire-issued driver's license to cast a standard ballot because under the new law, only driver’s licenses, passports, and military identification are permissible.
The measure demands that new voter registrants show documents like a passport, birth certificate, plus photo ID or naturalization papers.
Florida, Mississippi, South Dakota, and Utah all enacted proof-of-citizenship voting bills in the past few weeks.