96-Year-Old Chattanooga Woman Denied Voting ID

Submitted by Mr. Right

96-year-old Dorothy Cooper wanted to vote.

So when she learned last month at a community meeting that under a new Tennessee state law she would need a photo ID to vote next year, she talked with a volunteer about how to get to a state Driver Service Center to get her free ID. But when she got there Monday with an envelope full of documents, a clerk denied her request.

That morning, Cooper slipped a rent receipt, a copy of her lease, her voter registration card and her birth certificate into a Manila envelope. Typewritten on the birth certificate was her maiden name, Dorothy Alexander.

But since she didn’t have a marriage certificate, the clerk denied Ms. Cooper a free voter ID at the Cherokee Boulevard Driver Service Center.

Cooper was told she could file an absentee ballot, but she wants to go to the polls, walker and all.

By: MR. RIGHT