Reply #21: TN: Cities want those who live out of town to vote [View All]

[rumpel]

Tenneseean

Tuesday, 04/25/06

Provision extends to property owners

By TRAVIS LOLLER
For The Tennessean

When Horace Hughes retired from his family's Franklin grocery after 51 years, he and his wife moved out of town and thought their days voting in city elections were over.
They were unaware of an obscure Franklin provision allowing people who live out of town, but who own property in town, to vote in city elections — a setup that's spreading to cities across the Midstate.

Shortly after they moved, an alderman they supported tied in his re-election bid in 2002. The board of mayor and aldermen broke the tie, voting him out.
"If my husband and I had gone to vote, things would be different today," Betty Hughes said. When the couple learned they could have voted, they vowed never to miss another Franklin election.
About 110 Tennessee cities allow out-of-town property owners to vote in local elections. Last week, the state House approved a bill that could add the small town of Palmer in Grundy County to that number.
Cities such as Franklin, Columbia, Gallatin, Portland, Westmoreland, Mount Pleasant and Mitchellville all have enacted property rights voting through special legislation.
But Spring Hill, the latest city interested in opening its ballot boxes to nonresidents, has a more ambitious task ahead. Because the city is not governed by a local charter, the state's general laws for how cities operate would have to be changed — letting 119 "general law" cities, including Spring Hill, make the voting change without special legislation.
State Rep. Glen Casada, R-College Grove, said he hopes to get such a provision passed this session, which could end in May.
Supporters of the move say it's only right for landowners to have a say in how a city is run.