Cites Pew Study on Tennessee’s Low Registration Rate and Turnout
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) spoke from the well of the House floor this morning, citing a story in The Commercial Appeal about Tennessee’s last-place ranking in voter turnout in a Pew Charitable Trust study of the 2014 mid-term elections. The study showed just 28.5 percent turnout that year as well as a low level of registration, with just 74 percent of the eligible population registered to vote. See his remarks here.
Congressman Cohen also made the following statement:
“True democracy can’t function if more than 70 percent of registered voters don’t bother to participate and fewer than three-quarters of the population doesn’t act to be prepared to vote. I encourage all voters to make our publicly elected representative bodies representative of the people by getting registered and voting.
“As the indictments announced last Friday by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein show, Russia has been involved in our elections. If Russians care enough to get involved, surely Americans should register and vote to overcome their influence.”
This year is another non-presidential mid-term election cycle. Since 2017, Tennessee has a new system of online registration.
