Tennessee ranks 44th nationwide in voter registration, but saw a surge in voter registration during the 2018 midterm elections.
The voter registration bill came during this year’s legislative session, after Hargett said he noted many of the 10,000 registrations submitted near Memphis last year by the Tennessee Black Voter Project on the last day for registering were not filled out correctly.
Hargett, who backed the bill, has said the law was needed after the incident with thousands of incomplete registration forms created difficulties for local officials.
The bill specifically required groups organizing voter registration drives to undergo training and forces them to hand in completed documents in a timely manner.
Critics have questioned whether the bill has anything to do with the fact that it signed up about 86,000 people to vote in last year’s election.