Testimony in Opposition to TN H.B.1159, Restricting Voter Registration Options

Testimony from:
Dr. Jonathan Madison, Governance Fellow, R Street Institute

In OPPOSITION to House Bill 1159, “AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 2, relative to voter registration.”

March 4, 2026

House Committee on State and Local Government

Chairman Crawford and Members of the Committee:

My name is Dr. Jonathan Madison, and I am a governance fellow at the R Street Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization. Our mission is to engage in policy analysis and outreach to promote free markets and limited, effective government in many areas, including election administration. This is why we have an interest in House Bill 1159.

HB 1159 would move Tennessee toward a more cumbersome electoral system by requiring formal party registration in advance of participation in primaries. To do so would be needless government involvement and a solution in search of a problem. Tennessee law already requires a voter to be a bona fide member of a party or to declare allegiance to that party at the time they vote in its primary. In other words, the state does not allow unaffiliated participation. Voters must state their intent to affiliate with the party whose ballot they request. That framework already protects party integrity while preserving flexibility and accessibility for voters.

Primary elections in Tennessee are administered and funded by taxpayers. When public funds are used to conduct elections, participation should not be made more difficult without a compelling justification.[1] Requiring advance party registration would create new administrative burdens for voters and election officials alike, while offering limited practical benefit.

A limited government approach should aim to minimize unnecessary bureaucracy and ensure that taxpayer dollars are used responsibly. Expanding administrative requirements without clear evidence of need runs counter to those principles. For these reasons, we respectfully encourage a negative report of HB 1159.

Thank you,

Dr. Jonathan Madison
Governance Fellow
R Street Institute
385-500-7537
jmadison@rstreet.org

[1] Taxpayer Funding: The Cost of Closed Primaries (Open Primaries, 2022), https://openprimaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Taxpayer-Funding-The-Cost-of-Closed-Primaries.pdf.