Christopher Hale delivered this letter to Governor Lee on Friday, April 26, 2019. You can sign onto the letter below.

 

Governor Lee,

 

You and I share three great loves in our life: our faith, our family, and the State of Tennessee.

 

In service of all three, I ask you to veto SB0971/HB1079, which is a thinly-veiled attempt to suppress the registration of people of color, particularly those in marginalized communities throughout the Volunteer State.

 

It has rightly gained the contempt of people not just in our state, but throughout the nation.

 

As Christians, you and I agree wholeheartedly with our nation’s founders that our rights come from our Creator and must be secured by our government.

 

In our Constitution, the founders show us time and again that the right to vote is the vanguard of democracy.

 

It is in fact, democracy’s most sacred act and our citizens’ most sacred right.

 

Governor, on January 19, 2019, I watched you place your right hand on the Bible and swear an oath to God and to the people of Tennessee to uphold the United States Constitution and our State’s Constitution.

 

Bill, I know you to be a man of character and decency. I pray you do the right thing and protect our people’s God-given right to participate in democracy’s most sacred act.

 

To do so would be to honor our people, our founders, our Constitution, and our Creator.