A Franklin firm has been barred from deploying armed agents within 2,500 feet of any Minnesota polling place during early voting and on Election Day, the Franklin Home Page reports. The preliminary injunction was issued in a lawsuit against Franklin-based Atlas Aegis, a company accused of attempting to recruit and deploy special forces operators in Minnesota. "The presence of armed ‘guards’ at the polls with no connection to state government is certainly likely to intimidate voters,” U.S. District Court Judge Nancy E. Brasel said in the order.

By the close of polls on Wednesday, the Secretary of State’s office reported that 2.1 million Tennesseans had voted, the Tennessean reports. That number is 38% higher than the number of early and absentee votes from the 2016 election, with each county reporting an increase in voter turnout. Tennessee’s early voting period ends today, five days ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3.

A Nashville judge has ruled that the state is not required to alter its post-felony voting rights access laws to match those of other states, the Tennessean reports.  Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle dismissed the case brought by two Tennesseans with out-of-state felony convictions who wanted the state to modify its voting rights restoration policies. There are ways for those with felony convictions to restore their voting rights, but the plaintiffs, both convicted out-of-state, found they were unable to fully become re-eligible to vote. "Because Tennessee is constitutionally permitted to legislate different standards than other states for restoration of the right to vote and Plaintiffs do not allege that they meet these standards, their challenges necessarily fail,” Lyle wrote. The Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office reports that more than 3,400 individuals with felony convictions have had their voting rights restored since 2016.

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will take the stage tonight at Belmont University in Nashville for the final presidential debate, the Tennessean reports. Kristen Welker with NBC News will moderate the debate, scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. CDT. This is the second time Belmont has hosted a presidential debate, 12 years after it held a town hall between former President Barack Obama and the late Senator John McCain. Trump and Biden will both be tested for the COVID-19 virus prior to the debate and all audience members will be required to wear masks throughout the event. The debate will air on all major networks.

Produced by the TBA Public Education Committee, a new one-hour online CLE explores voting rights in Tennessee, including the case of Fisher v. Hargett, which deals with absentee voting in the 2020 election. Speakers include Committee Chair Amy Willoughby Bryant; Jacob Brown with Apperson Crump; Tricia Herzfeld with Branstetter, Stranch and Jennings; and Jeffrey Usman with the Belmont University College of Law. The committee also has developed an online resources page with information about registering to vote, finding polling places and tracking election results.

A poll worker in Shelby County was fired yesterday after he turned away voters wearing t-shirts and masks that said “Black Lives Matter,” the Commercial Appeal reports. While state law prohibits voters from wearing items with the name of a political party or candidate currently on the ballot into a polling location, statements like “Black Lives Matter” or “I Can’t Breathe” do not violate that law. “What he did was patently wrong and he was fired,” said Suzanne Thompson, spokeswoman for the Shelby County Election Commission. The worker was fired on the spot from the polling site at Dave Wells Community Center in Memphis after election officials confirmed the reports.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday declined to reinstate a law requiring first-time voters to cast a ballot in-person or show ID at the local election office before voting absentee, the Associated Press reports. The 3-0 decision maintains a lower court’s order last month. In Monday’s opinion, Judge Julia Smith Gibbons said “disrupting the new rules at this point poses significant risk of harm to the public interest in orderly elections.” Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said the ruling, coupled with expanded eligibility, means “thousands of first-time voters should not be forced to risk their health in order to vote.”

A 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals three-judge panel on Thursday ruled it would not change Tennessee’s signature matching requirement for absentee voting before the November election, the Associated Press reports. The panel was split on affirming a lower court’s decision, with Judge Julia Smith Gibbons citing a lack of evidence that the signature verification process infringed on anyone’s Constitutional rights. The preliminary injunction had sought to let voters fix signature issues before mail ballot rejections. Judge Karen Nelson Moore’s dissent claimed “yet another chapter in the concentrated effort to restrict the vote.”

According to the Secretary of State’s office, a record-breaking 273,325 Tennesseans have cast their ballot by voting early or absentee voting—a 91% increase from the first day of early voting in 2016 and a 120% increase over 2012. Early voting for the state and federal primary and county general election runs Monday to Saturday until Oct. 29. Election Day is Nov. 3.Voting and election day hours, polling locations and more can be found at GoVoteTN.com or with the GoVoteTN app.

Memphis Judge William Acree ruled last week that two business owners, Greg Grant and M. LaTroy Alexandria-Williams, willfully violated an earlier order barring them from distributing ballots that look like lists of candidates officially endorsed by the local Democratic party, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports. The business owners were sentenced to 10 days imprisonment for criminal contempt of court, but Acree suspended the sentences so long as the pair do not have any further violations through the Nov. 3 election. Local candidates, including Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, have pumped thousands of dollars into look-alike Democratic ballots. Business owners can still produce lists of favored candidates without the word "Democratic" on them, Acree said. The Shelby County Democratic Party brought suit against Grant and Alexandria-Williams saying look-alike ballots cause confusion, especially since the local party does not endorse candidates in primary elections.