Judge orders Tennessee election officials to list coronavirus on mail-in ballot form

A judge in Tennessee ordered state election officials to clearly note on absentee ballot applications that voters can opt for mail-in ballots if they or someone in their care believe they are at higher risk for contracting COVID-19.

In a ruling first reported by The Associated Press, Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle found that absent markings on absentee ballot applications, state voters would have insufficient information about their right to request a mail-in ballot.

“A prospective voter looking at the Form has absolutely no way of knowing that the Tennessee Supreme Court has held that if the voter determines for himself/herself that he/she has a ‘special vulnerability to COVID-19’ or is a ‘caretaker’ of such a person, he/she is eligible to vote via absentee ballot during the November election,” Lyle wrote, according to the AP.

The change to the ballots was resisted by GOP state officials, including Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Haggert (R), who blasted the judge in a statement accusing her of “legislating from the bench.” State attorneys had argued that Lyle’s ordered changes would unnecessarily confuse voters.

Lyle previously ordered state officials to halt plans to change absentee ballot applications that would have made a separate category for COVID-19-related reasons that a voter could list when applying for mail-in ballots.

“It is ironic to us that the same Chancellor who chastised us for changing the form is now upset because we did not change the form,” a spokesperson for Haggert’s office told the AP. “The Chancellor is legislating from the bench again.”

Allies of President Trump have sought to cast doubt on the accuracy of mail-in voting systems in recent months, while Trump accused lawmakers around the country of using the pandemic to “defraud the American people, all of our people, of a fair and free election” by pushing mail-in voting, which he has argued will favor Democrats in November.