PREAMBLE

We, the undersigned citizens of the State of Tennessee, exercising our rights as the sovereign people from whom all governmental power derives, hereby present this petition in support of the constitutional challenge to Tennessee Code Annotated § 2-7-133(h)(2) — the statute that categorically prohibits a candidate defeated in a primary election from filing a write-in candidacy notice for the General Election, and that requires all write-in votes cast for such a candidate not be counted.

We petition on two grounds, each standing independently:

GROUND ONE

We support the right of any candidate — including Monty Fritts, candidate for Governor in the August 6, 2026 Tennessee Republican Primary — who received substantial documented voter support in a primary election to pursue a write-in candidacy in the General Election, and we call on the courts to protect that right.

GROUND TWO

Regardless of any individual candidacy, We The People of Tennessee declare that TCA § 2-7-133(h)(2) is unconstitutional on its face and as applied, and we demand its amendment or repeal by the Tennessee General Assembly on the constitutional grounds set forth herein. No citizen of Tennessee should ever again be barred from casting a meaningful write-in vote for a candidate of their choosing simply because that candidate participated in a primary election.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL GROUNDS

I. THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the right of citizens to associate, to advocate, and to participate in the electoral process. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal protection of the laws. Together, under the standard established by the United States Supreme Court in Anderson v. Celebrezze, 460 U.S. 780 (1983), states may impose ballot access restrictions only where the burden on constitutional rights is justified by a sufficiently weighty state interest. We declare that TCA § 2-7-133(h)(2) fails that test: it imposes a complete, categorical ban on the only remaining path to the ballot for a class of candidates with demonstrated voter support, while freely permitting candidates with zero voter support to use that same path. That is neither constitutionally justified nor rationally defensible.

II. THE TENNESSEE CONSTITUTION

The Tennessee Constitution provides protections that are independent of — and in this case stronger than — the federal constitutional floor.

Article I, Section 5 declares: "The elections shall be free and equal." An election that bars a candidate with thousands of documented primary votes from the write-in path while admitting candidates with no voter support at all is neither free nor equal.

Article I, Section 1 declares: "That all power is inherent in the people... they have at all times, an unalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform, or abolish the government in such manner as they may think proper." Our right to choose our Governor — unalienable and indefeasible — cannot be defeated by a statute that removes our preferred candidate from any electoral path.

Article XI, Section 16 — the Forever Inviolate Supremacy Clause — declares: "The declaration of rights hereto prefixed is declared to be a part of the Constitution of the state, and shall never be violated on any pretense whatever. And to guard against transgression of the high powers we have delegated, we declare that everything in the bill of rights contained, is excepted out of the general powers of the government, and shall forever remain inviolate."

These are not ordinary legislative preferences. These are rights the people of Tennessee placed beyond the reach of the General Assembly — forever, on any pretense whatever.

III. THE OPEN PRIMARY PROBLEM

Tennessee holds open primaries. Any registered voter — regardless of party affiliation — may walk into a polling place on primary day, declare allegiance to either party, and vote in that party's primary. The Republican primary electorate is therefore not composed exclusively of Republican or conservative voters. At the same time, a substantial segment of conservative Tennessee voters deliberately choose not to participate in primary elections because they believe that PAC money and establishment political interests — not grassroots voter sentiment — determine primary outcomes. These voters reserve their participation for the General Election, where they believe their votes carry greater weight. TCA § 2-7-133(h)(2) punishes these voters twice: first by permitting a primary process accessible to all affiliations and dominated by outside money, and second by using that primary result to permanently close the General Election write-in avenue for the candidate those voters preferred. This is neither free nor equal.

OUR DEMANDS

We The People of Tennessee, by our signatures affixed herein, declare and demand:

1. That TCA § 2-7-133(h)(2) be declared unconstitutional by the courts — both on its face and as applied to any candidate who received documented voter support in a primary election;
2. That any candidate — including Monty Fritts — who received substantial primary voter support be permitted to file a Declaration of Intent of Write-In Candidacy for the General Election, and that write-in votes cast for such candidate be counted;
3. That the Tennessee General Assembly immediately amend or repeal TCA § 2-7-133(h)(2) to restore the right of all Tennessee citizens to cast a meaningful write-in vote for a candidate of their choosing in any General Election, regardless of whether that candidate participated in a primary;
4. That the courts, the Governor, and the General Assembly recognize that the sovereign people of Tennessee — whose unalienable and indefeasible rights are protected forever inviolate under Article XI, Section 16 of our Constitution — have spoken: this law must go.