Tennessee high court keeps mail voting expansion amid appeal

The Tennessee Supreme Court will not block a judge’s order offering a by-mail voting option to all eligible voters during the coronavirus pandemic while the state appeals the expansion. The state’s high court on Wednesday agreed to fast-track the appeal without a lower appellate court considering it, but a majority of justices voted against a stay of the absentee voting expansion pending appeal. A Nashville judge, Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle, ordered the expansion earlier this month. Only a handful of states are not offering by-mail voting for everyone during the pandemic, though two-thirds of states allowed the practice before the outbreak.