Tennessee’s voter ID law may have its day in court now that a group of college students has filed a federal lawsuit alleging the state is violating rights guaranteed to them by the U.S. Constitution.
At issue is the exclusion of student ID cards from the accepted list of voter IDs.
Jon Sherman, an attorney with the Fair Elections Legal Network, is representing the students.
“The state has discriminated against students and discriminated on the basis of age,” he states. “They’ve made it easier for older voters to cast ballots without showing ID and made it harder and harder for students to cast their votes.”
Tennessee does not require voters submitting an absentee ballot with an acceptable excuse such as illness to provide a copy of their ID.
Sherman adds that most other states that do have strict voter ID laws allow for student IDs as an accepted form of identification. Only Tennessee, South Carolina and Texas do not.
Tennessee’s voter ID law was passed in 2011. The state insists that a lack of uniformity among student IDs would make it difficult for poll workers.
In 2012, the U.S. the Government Accountability Office determined youth turnout dropped by more than 2 percent as a result of the law.
Sherman says there are thousands of students in Tennessee who are legal residents and legal voters, but who do not or cannot obtain a state-issued photo ID.
“A lot of students are residents of Tennessee but they don’t have anything except the ID they got while they were a high school student back in their prior residence and their student ID card,” he points out.
The plaintiffs in the case are waiting on the state’s response to their lawsuit. Out-of-state students can get a free ID-only Tennessee card and be allowed to vote, but the lawsuit asserts that process is not feasible for many students.

NASCAR 2014 Sprint Cup Series Champion Kevin Harvick is coming to Tullahoma in August.
Pennsylvania-based Ollie’s Bargain Outlet is set to open a new store in the Tullahoma Square shopping center.
Ollie’s will be moving into the former Fuji Photo building on West Lincoln Street, occupying roughly 30,000 square feet of retail space.
Founded in 1982, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet has grown to be one of the nation’s largest retailers of closeout, surplus and salvage merchandise.
The Tullahoma store is expected to hire up to 60 associates.
The Ollie’s team is hoping to open in August with Harvick on hand to sign autographs for 250 ticket-holding fans.
Tickets will be distributed on the morning of Harvick’s appearance on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Manchester Burger King was robbed at gunpoint on Sunday morning at 7am. The black male enter the restaurant and forced a female employee to open the safe. Another female employee of Burger King used her cell phone to call 911, giving a description of the man and vehicle he left in.
Manchester patrol officers were quick arriving on the scene and started pursuit of the suspect. 8 minutes after the emergency call came out Manchester Police stopped 36 year-old Nemon Omar Winton of Hillsboro on Volunteer Parkway. Winton was charged with aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping and was booked in at the Coffee County Jail under a $400,000 bond. Money belonging to Burger King was recovered.
The Crime Investigation Division of the Manchester Police Department thanks the patrolmen for their quick response and arrest of Winton.

Gov. Haslam has asked the Department of Health to investigate why 11 people froze to death during last month’s winter storm. That death total included one in nearby Moore County.
Some people were found dead in their homes after being without heat. Bill Barton, 73, was found dead in his Magnolia Street Lynchburg home. At least two others were elderly people who froze outside their homes after falling down.
Tennessee’s Health Commissioner said that neighbors checking on neighbors is the best means of preventing hypothermia deaths.
He said most of those who died of hypothermia probably had people who were worried about them but couldn’t get out to check on them.

A Powerball ticket worth $1 million was purchased in the southern Middle Tennessee town of Fayetteville in Lincoln County.
The ticket matched five of the six numbers from Saturday’s drawing.
Matching five numbers pays out a $1 million prize. The ticket is the 158th Tennessee Lottery ticket sold worth $1 million or more since the lottery’s inception.
This is the second Tennessee Lottery ticket in two weeks that won at least $1 million. A $2 million ticket last week was purchased in Houston County.