Voting Rights Restoration General Overview
This is a general overview of how to restore your voting rights in Nashville/Davidson county. The process is unfortunately convoluted, complicated, and time consuming especially if you do not have access to your Probation/Parole Officer and can vary based on the specifics of your situation. The overview is presented to be as simple and easy to follow as possible. With that said this overview does not constitute legal advice but simply as a self directing guide that aims to help to give you an idea and a starting point of what to do to get your voting rights back.
1. You have to be current with any Court Payments and Child Support.
2. Print a Certificate of Restoration form for each Felony(s) (Different Case Number/ Docket) that you have. You can find it here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/sos-tn-gov-files/forms/ss-3041.pdf
Then,
3a. (The Best Way) If you have or if you can contact your Probation/Parole Officer reach out to ask them to fill out the form(s) and take the form(s) to them and have that person complete Parts 1 & 2.
3b. If you can NOT contact or reach your Probation/Parole Officer then if your Felony(s) is a State Charge you will have to ask the TN Board of Probation and Parole to fill the form. I’m going to relay some information from the Equality Alliance, they recommend that you reach out to Marty Dreher who is a State of TN Board of Probation and Parole Manager to set up an appointment or arrangement to get parts 1 and 2 of your form(s) completed.
Marty Dreher
State of Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole Manager
220 Blanton Ave. Nashville, TN 37210
615-253-5088
Marty.Dreher@tn.gov
OR
3c. If your Felony(s) is a Federal Charge you will have to contact a US Board of Parole Office (Probation) and have them complete all 4 parts of the form.
US Board of Parole Office
110 9th Avenue South #A725
Nashville, TN 37203
615-736-5771
Then, if you have the completed form by the US Board of Parole Office then you can skip to step 5.
4. Contact the Circuit or Criminal Court to set up an appointment or arrangement to have parts 3 & 4 of the form completed. According to the Equality Alliance you can reach out to Lillian Machado who is the Front Counter Team Lead at the Davidson County Criminal Court Clerk’s Office.
Lillian Machado
Davidson County Criminal Court Clerk Front Counter Team Lead
615-862-5601 ext. 71412
lillian.machado@nashville.gov
LillianMachado@jis.nashville.org
Davidson County Criminal Court Clerk
408 2nd Avenue North, Suite 2120
Nashville, TN 37201
615-862-5601
You can also reach out to the Circuit Court Clerk’s Office to set up an appointment or arrangement at:
Circuit Court Clerk Office
1 Public Square #302
Nashville, TN 37201
Then,
5. With the completed form(s) hand deliver the forms to the Nashville Election Commission Office where they will process the forms and will contact you (can take up to 2 – 3 weeks) about your Voting Rights status.
Nashville Election Commission Office
1417 Murfreesboro Pike
Nashville, TN 37217
Then lastly,
6a. If they contact you stating your rights will be restored you will still need to actually Register to Vote via Online (GoVoteTN.com) or by filling out a paper Voting Registration form and send that to the Nashville Election Commission Office. Make sure you mark yes to any felony boxes on any voting forms and ballots because if you say you don’t have a felony it could be considered voter fraud.
6b. If they contact you stating your rights will not be restored they should give you the reason why and give you information on how to resolve the issue if it is resolvable.
If you run into issues or have questions you can contact:
TN Division of Elections
312 Rosa L. Parks Avenue
7th Floor, Snodgrass Tower
Nashville, TN 37243
615-741-2286 (General Information)
615-741-7956 (Division of Elections)
Nashville Election Commission
1417 Murfreesboro Pike
Nashville, TN 37217
615-862-8800
vote.questions@nashville.gov
The ACLU of TN may be able to help you directly with the process of Restoring your Voting Rights by filling out the ACLU’s Intake Form