§ 2-6-502 — Armed forces personnel - Persons temporarily outside United States - Procedure

(a) Any application to vote absentee by mail from armed forces personnel anywhere outside the county where the voter is registered or from qualified voters temporarily staying outside the territorial limits of the United States and the District of Columbia shall be processed under this section if it does not meet the requirements of § 2-6-202 as an absentee voting application or if the applicant is not a registered voter. A certificate of nonregistration is not required of a person voting under this section. (b) An application for an absentee ballot or temporary registration or both from any person authorized to vote absentee by mail under subsection (a) may be in any form but shall contain the applicant's name, social security number, date of birth, and residence in the county in which the applicant proposes to vote and shall contain the address to which the absentee ballot is to be mailed. If the election is a primary election, the applicant shall state such applicant's political party preference. The county election commission shall accept the federal postcard application or the application for the federal write-in absentee ballot, as provided for in the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act ( 42 U.S.C. § 1973ff et seq.), for temporary registration and for an absentee ballot for all elections for which the person is eligible to vote. An application or ballot affidavit shall be signed by the voter, under the penalty of perjury, thereby verifying all the information on the application or ballot affidavit is true and correct and that the voter is eligible to vote in the election. The social security number, date of birth, mailing address and electronic mailing address contained on such application shall be confidential and not subject to the open records law compiled in title 10, chapter 7. (c) An application must be received in the county election commission office of the county in which the applicant is a resident not later than ten (10) days before the election and not earlier than January 1 of the year in which the election is to be held; provided, that in the event an election is to be held less than ninety (90) days after January 1 of any calendar year, applications under this section may be received not earlier than ninety (90) days before the election in which the applicant desires to vote. (d) An application for an absentee ballot under this section shall be treated as an application for temporary registration if the applicant is not already a registered voter where such applicant applies to vote. The applicant shall be granted temporary registration if such applicant is a qualified voter under § 2-2-102 . Temporary registration under this section is not subject to the deadline set in § 2-2-109 . A person applying to vote absentee under this section in a primary election may request in such person's application for an absentee ballot that an absentee ballot for the succeeding general election be sent to the person when such ballots become available for distribution; provided, that if a voter voting hereunder moves from the location where the voter is to be sent a primary ballot between the primary and general elections, such voter shall notify the county election commission of such move and advise the commission where the general election ballot is to be sent. (e) Upon determining whether the applicant is entitled to register, vote, or both in the election, the administrator of elections shall proceed under the general provisions of this chapter for voting absentee by mail or under procedures determined by the coordinator of elections for electronically transmitting voting materials. In all counties, the attesting official shall update the voter's computerized voter history by making the appropriate data entry. (f) Ballots received under this section shall be processed as other absentee ballots from persons voting absentee by mail. A federal write-in absentee ballot from any applicant under this section shall be counted for all elections for which the applicant is eligible to vote. (g) A United States citizen who was born abroad and who is eligible to vote and who has never lived in the United States may register temporarily and vote in the county where a parent would be eligible to temporarily register and vote pursuant to this section.

Legislative History

Amended by 2024 Tenn. Acts, ch. 560,s 4, eff. 11/6/2024. Acts 1972, ch. 740, § 1; T.C.A., § 2-612; Acts 1983, ch. 107, §§ 1, 2; 1988, ch. 933, § 10; T.C.A., §2-6-112; Acts 1994, ch. 859, § 6; 1997 , ch. 558, § 14; 2007 , ch. 125, § 4; 2010 , ch. 636, §§ 2-4; 2011 , ch. 176, §§ 2, 3.