For Frances Edwards, a new face at Blakeford Senior Life often brings an opportunity to ask a familiar question: Are you registered to vote?
The 96-year-old retired nurse has spent decades encouraging election participation. At the Green Hills senior living community, that work continues in conversations with staff and new residents, alongside political organizing with neighbors.
Her own plan is to vote as soon as early voting opens Oct. 14 for the Nov. 3 general election. At her age, Edwards sees little reason to put it off.
“You know, as old as I am, I want to go the first time I can vote,” she said. “I might die in between.”
Behind that urgency is a family memory reaching back to the expansion of voting rights for women. Edwards’ mother was among the first cohort of women to vote in Mississippi after passage of the 19th Amendment. Her example made voting an expectation in the household, not an occasional activity.
“My mother was one of the first women to vote, and so there wasn’t any way in God’s green earth I wasn’t going to vote every time they opened the doors,” Edwards said.
Women gained that constitutional protection only a decade before Edwards was born. To her, the struggle is connected to people she knew, rather than a distant chapter in a history book. She wants younger voters to understand that connection and not take the right for granted.
“I would wash their mouth out with soap if they said something like that, because women have not always had the right to vote,” she said. “That’s one of the things that is in our DNA.”
Nashville played a decisive role in that history. In August 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment, providing the final state approval required to add it to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment prohibited denying or abridging voting rights on account of sex.
The ratification fight brought suffrage supporters and opponents to Nashville, with the Hermitage Hotel serving as a gathering place during the campaign. At the state Capitol, a closely contested House vote made Tennessee central to a national movement that had stretched across generations.
That victory did not remove every barrier. Black women, like Black men, continued to face discriminatory registration practices, intimidation and other restrictions, particularly in the South. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 became another landmark in the long struggle to make constitutional voting protections meaningful in practice.
Those overlapping histories matter in a city where the fight for civil rights later included the 1960 lunch-counter sit-ins led by Black college students. Access to public accommodations and access to the ballot were distinct struggles, but both challenged exclusion from civic life.
Edwards’ own memories of unequal treatment extend beyond elections. She recalled being unable to obtain a credit card or test-drive a car as an adult married woman. Those experiences help explain why she remains determined to participate in public life.
Federal protections against credit discrimination arrived well after women won constitutional voting protections. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, enacted in 1974, prohibited lenders from discriminating on the basis of sex or marital status. For women of Edwards’ generation, such changes were developments in adult life, not conditions they had always known.
Nursing brought Edwards to Nashville. She attended Vanderbilt for her training, stayed in the city and married the late Dr. Bill Edwards. Her professional life also became a route into advocacy: Through local and national nursing organizations, she lobbied at the Tennessee legislature and in Washington, D.C.
She also worked with the League of Women Voters and taught sex education in Nashville schools. Founded in 1920 as women were winning the vote nationally, the league has long focused on voter education and participation. It is a nonpartisan organization, separate from the party organizing Edwards now does with some neighbors.
Over time, health care policy influenced her political choices. The first presidential candidate she voted for was Dwight Eisenhower. In 1992, she began voting for Democrats because of her concerns about health care.
At Blakeford, she now joins a group of Democrats who regularly meet to write postcards. Occasionally, the group also pickets along the surrounding Burton Hills streets. Her registration questions are another part of that continuing engagement, driven in part by her frustration with Tennessee’s low voter participation.
Asked how that participation rate makes her feel, Edwards answered: “Terrible. That’s one of the reasons I keep asking people.”
The immediate election calendar gives those conversations added importance. Tennessee’s registration deadline for the Nov. 3 general election is midnight Monday, Oct. 5. Residents should not wait until early voting begins to check whether they are registered.
The Tennessee secretary of state’s GoVoteTN website provides registration information, a way to check voter registration status and election guidance. Online registration requires a Tennessee driver’s license or Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security identification. Residents who need another registration method should promptly consult the Davidson County Election Commission about the requirements and deadline.
For some of Edwards’ neighbors, voting will happen before the general early-voting period begins. Davidson County election workers are preparing to visit senior living facilities so eligible residents can cast ballots where they live.
County Election Administrator John Richardson said those visits begin Tuesday, Oct. 6, with Blakeford scheduled later that week. Tennessee does not allow nursing home residents to vote by mail, making the facility visits an important means of participation.
Before each visit, the Davidson County Election Commission checks voter rolls with the facility. One Republican and one Democratic poll official then spend a few hours there collecting ballots. Residents who cannot reach the common voting room can be served in their individual rooms.
The commission visits dozens of senior living facilities across Nashville before each election. For residents whose mobility or health makes a trip to a polling place difficult, bringing election officials to their residence provides a way to participate without making that trip.
“We want to make sure that anybody who’s eligible to vote, that wants to vote, can participate, but we want to protect the vote,” Richardson said. “We’re trying to protect voters at all seasons and ages in life.”
Residents and families with questions about facility voting should contact the election commission to confirm eligibility and arrangements. Living in a senior community can involve different levels of care, so voters should verify the rules that apply to their circumstances rather than assume a neighbor’s voting method is also theirs.
For voters heading to the polls, the commission’s page at Nashville.gov lists local election information, including early-voting locations and hours. During early voting, Davidson County voters can use any designated early-voting location in the county. On Election Day, voters should confirm their assigned polling place.
Tennessee generally requires a qualifying photo ID for in-person voting, with exemptions specified in state law. Checking identification requirements, registration status and transportation plans ahead of time can help avoid last-minute problems.
For Edwards, the personal work continues alongside that official process: asking another neighbor, reminding another staff member and making her own plan to vote. The habit she learned from her mother remains a responsibility she wants others to share.