KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — UPDATE (April 18): The Tennessee Senate passed a bill that would change how people in Knoxville elect city council members. It was amended and would now take effect on Jan. 1, 2024, if Gov. Bill Lee signs it into law or lets it become law without his signature.
"It's just unacceptable, unwarranted, and just an egregious overstep," said Knoxville Vice Mayor Andrew Roberto. "All Council decisions are citywide decisions. There's not really district decisions in city council."
It passed in a 24-5 vote. Since it was amended, the House now needs to concur with the change before the bill can be sent to the governor's desk.
"This is just another state overreach. I don't know why a senator from Jefferson County and a representative not living in the city of Knoxville are bringing forth a bill that's strictly dealing with the city of Knoxville elections," Rep. Sam McKenzie said. "We have the most diverse city council that we've ever had. We have more women, more minorities on this city council than we've ever had."
Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon said she is disappointed with the state legislature's decision to override their local decision-making.
"For more than 50 years, City residents have rightfully and responsibly managed our own elections and determined a fair and equitable process for choosing our elected City Council representatives," she said in a statement. "Our voter-approved Home Rule Charter calls for district primary winners advancing to a citywide general election, and that has produced Councils that are engaged with and accountable to everyone in the City."
She added that the new law will not take effect until 2024, so the city can "take some time to weigh our options for next steps."
Roberto released a statement about the bill on Monday, saying that the city would seek "judicial relief" if it becomes law.
The statement is below.
The ease at which the will of the people of Knoxville was disregarded and dismissed was shocking and should serve as a wake up call to all home rule cities in Tennessee. Simply put, what happened here is the election system adopted by city voters in a public referendum was overruled, an action neither requested nor supported locally. Even those who think making a change might be worth considering, believe that this is a decision for Knoxville voters.
This represents an unwarranted and unacceptable intrusion into our local elections. Apparently partisanship has now gone so far as to be a force in violating basic principles of democracy. I believe in respecting the vote of the people, acting with the consent of the governed, expanding not limiting voting rights, and the freedom to make local decisions locally. I urge the Governor to veto this bill, but, if it becomes law, we must seek judicial relief and consider all available options to protect home rule in Knoxville.
Rep. Elaine Davis also released a statement on Monday, celebrating the passage of the bill.
House Bill 817 and Senate Bill 526 were introduced to make sure all Tennesseans have fair elections and registered voters in districts are not disenfranchised by registered voters outside of their district.
In 1983, Knoxville’s former Democrat State Representative Pete Drew introduced House Bill 381 to create a new Tennessee general election law because he felt that some Tennesseans were being disenfranchised in district elections. HB381 became law as part of the Public Acts of 1983, Chapter 404. Today that public act is current general election law in the Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA) 6-53-110.
The most important part of TCA 6-53-110 is the first subsection ((a)(1)(A)(B)(2)) which was referred to in 1983 as the “brainchild” of Rep. Drew. This establishes the intent that if a candidate is nominated by a district they must be elected by that district. Through multiple amendments, including from legislators other than Rep. Drew, the 1983 bill was changed in the lower subsections which created exemptions to the first subsection.
Forty years later, HB817/SB526 supports the intent of former Rep. Drew by amending the law to delete those exemptions and make it clear that if a candidate is nominated by a district’s registered voters they must be elected by that district’s registered voters.
The Tennessee Constitution, TCA 6-53-110, and local charters all agree that the Tennessee General Assembly has final authority on general election law. HB817/SB526 is general election law because it impacts multiple communities across Tennessee. The 1983 act was also general election law, and it was enacted that year despite some local elected city officials opposing it with their concerns about home rule and charter.
District voters being disenfranchised has been a problem for decades and it is what prompted the 1983 law. In 1983, on the House floor Rep. Drew mentioned he was aware of four examples of candidates who won their districts but lost the election to the voters outside of the district. Since 1983, there have been at least six more examples, including four more from Knoxville in the 1997, 2009, 2017, and 2021 city elections. Two examples from Morristown in their 2021 city election.
HB817/SB526 does not change any Tennessee law regarding partisan elections. Any claim otherwise has no factual basis.
I appreciate the support of Senators Niceley, Briggs, and the Senate members who supported fair elections.
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ORIGINAL: The Tennessee House of Representatives on Thursday voted in favor of a bill that would change how people in Knoxville elect city council members.
Currently, when voters head to the polls in Knoxville during city primary elections, they are allowed to vote for candidates only in their district. During the city general elections, however, Knoxville voters are able to vote for candidates in every city council election, including districts outside the one they live in.
Knoxville conducts its local elections differently from most of Tennessee. State law generally requires cities to hold district-limited elections for city council seats, with the exception of the citywide at-large seats. However, decades ago state lawmakers passed an exception for Knoxville and cities of a similar size to allow voters to elect all of its city council members across all districts on a citywide basis.
Some state lawmakers now want to remove that exception.
HB 0817 was introduced by Representative Elaine Davis (R - Knoxville) and would delete a section from a Tennessee code that created the voting rule exemptions for cities and counties of specific sizes. In effect, the bill only impacts Knoxville and Morristown because these are the only two cities that utilize the exemption. Sen. Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville) sponsored the Senate counterpart bill.
Representative Sam McKenzie (D - Knoxville) asked on the House floor if the bill had "anything to do with the overwhelming victory that the previous five city council folks had" in Knoxville's last election. Knoxville City Council elections are usually non-partisan, but in the 2021 election, the Knox County GOP publicly endorsed five candidates that sought to unseat the incumbents in Districts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. All five of the GOP-backed candidates lost.
"This has to do with voters being disenfranchised," Davis said.
In Knoxville's city primaries, the top two candidates that have the most votes move on to face each other in the November general election. Davis said she believed voters in a particular district could be disenfranchised if the candidate that earned the most votes in the district primary lost in the citywide general election.
Davis pointed to a scenario that happened in Knoxville's District 3 in 2017, where Seema Singh defeated James Corcoran in the November general election even though Corcoran had more votes in the August district-limited primary election over her and two other candidates. That election year was unique for Knoxville voters because all the candidates were newcomers -- no incumbents ran in that election because they were all term-limited.
The same situation did not happen in 2021 when the District 3 primary was just between Singh and another challenger, Nick Ciparro. Singh defeated Ciparro with 55% of the vote in the citywide general election and also had the most votes in the district primary election with 53%.
Some Knoxville council members are opposed to the state's proposed law, saying it would strip away Knoxville voter rights. They also fear it would disenfranchise voters specifically in North Knoxville's District 5 due to how the election cycles are spaced out.
Knoxville city elections are held in odd-numbered years in alternating two-year cycles. Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 are decided in one two-year cycle, and District 5, the three at-large seats, and mayoral elections are decided during the other two-year cycle.
Because the District 5 elections occur in the same cycle as the citywide at-large seats and mayoral elections, voters in that district would only be able to participate in city elections every four years if the law is passed. The other districts would still be able to vote in both two-year cycles: one cycle in their district election, and the other cycle in the at-large and mayoral elections.
"Singling out the 5th district and limiting those voters to only one vote every four years, when every other district votes every two years, is completely unacceptable. Every voter in every district deserves an equal voice in their city government," District 2 Councilmember Andrew Roberto said.
State Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) voted against the bill. She said she believes it would cause more confusion surrounding local elections, saying many people in District 5 have spent decades voting in city elections every two years and would need to change their voting habits.
"District 5 in Knoxville is within my House district that I represent," Johnson said. "The big concern is that this is going to set up a really strange situation where everybody had the opportunity to vote every two years in these elections, and in District 5, because of the year they're set in, is only going to get to vote every four years. So, the District 5 folks feel disenfranchised."
Davis said that the bill was meant to make sure that voters choose the representation for their district and said it's meant to enfranchise voters.
"This bill, what this does, is go back to the original language of the statute that the majority of our state falls under," she said. "We want to make sure those voters are enfranchised."
Johnson said she thinks voters in Knoxville should have the final say on how city elections are conducted.
"This is not coming from the people. I've talked to thousands of people in that district, and no one is asking for this," Johnson said. "We're talking about a very tight, well-connected city ... and it's brought a kind of collegiality between the districts and it lends to a council that really relies on each other and works really well together. The fact that no one in our city is asking for this, or there's certainly been no call except for up here, shouldn't we let the locals decide that?"
The bill passed the House by a 73-20 vote and next heads to the Senate.
The City of Knoxville's director of communications released a statement about the bill below:
Generally speaking, the City prefers for decision-making powers to stay at the local level, rather than with the state. Of course, we are staying in touch with the sponsors of the bill and will be watching what happens next.