NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s top election office has sent letters to more than 14,000 registered voters asking them to prove their citizenship, a move that alarmed voting rights advocates as possible intimidation.

The letters, dated June 13, warned that it is illegal in Tennessee for noncitizens to vote and provided instructions on how to update voter information. The list was developed after comparing voter rolls with data from the state Department of Safety and Homeland Security, said Doug Kufner, spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office, in a statement Tuesday.

Kufner described the data from the state’s homeland security department as a “snapshot” of a person’s first interaction with that agency. Some may not have been U.S. citizens when they obtained a driver’s license or ID card but have since been naturalized and “likely did not update their records,” he said.

“Accurate voter rolls are a vital component to ensuring election integrity, and Tennessee law makes it clear that only eligible voters are allowed to participate in Tennessee elections,” Kufner said.

The letter does not, however, reveal what would happen to those who do not update their records — including whether people who fail to respond will be purged from the voter rolls. Kufner did not immediately respond to an email seeking clarity on if voters were at risk of being removed.

Instead, the letter contains warnings that illegal voting is a felony and carries penalties of up to two years in prison.

Voting rights advocates began raising the alarm after photos of the letter started circulating on social media. Democrats have long criticized the Secretary of State’s office for its stances on voting issues in the Republican-dominant state.

“The fact legal citizens of the United States and residents of Tennessee are being accused of not being eligible to vote is an affront to democracy,” said state Rep. Jason Powell, a Democrat from Nashville, in a statement. “These fine Tennesseans are being burdened with re-proving their own voter eligibility and threatened with imprisonment in a scare tactic reminiscent of Jim Crow laws.”

Powel and fellow Democratic Rep. John Ray Clemmons on Tuesday urged Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to investigate the issue.

Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson, a Democrat from Knoxville, said she was informed that one of the letter recipients included a “respected scientist in Oak Ridge” who had become a citizen and registered to vote in 2022.

“Maybe the state should verify citizenship with the federal government before sending threatening/intimidating letters to new citizens,” Johnson posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Other leaders encouraged those who received a letter to reach out to the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee for possible legal resources.

The effort bears some resemblance to the rollout of a sweeping Texas voting law passed in 2021, in which thousands of Texans — including some U.S. citizens — received letters saying they have been flagged as potential noncitizens who could be kicked off voting rolls.

Texas officials had just settled a lawsuit in 2019 after a prior search for ineligible voters flagged nearly 100,000 registered voters but wrongly captured naturalized citizens. A federal judge who halted the search the month after it began noted that only about 80 people to that point had been identified as potentially ineligible to vote.

ESPN NFL analysts Mike Clay, Aaron Schatz and Seth Walder ranked every projected starting lineup in the NFL from best to worst on Tuesday, slotting the Tennessee Titans among the worst rosters in the league.

Clay, Schatz and Walder rank the Titans with the 25th-best unit in the league heading into the 2024 regular season, ahead of only the Las Vegas Raiders, New England Patriots and Denver Broncos among AFC teams. The Titans’ next-closest division rival is the Indianapolis Colts, slotted at No. 21, while their other AFC South foes from Jacksonville and Houston are both ranked in the top half of the league.

The trio of ESPN analysts rank wide receiver as the Titans’ biggest strength heading into 2024, raving about the revamped unit built around DeAndre Hopkins, Calvin Ridley and Tyler Boyd. They also identify cornerback L’Jarius Sneed as the “x-factor” for 2024 since cornerback is such a difficult position to project year-over-year success carry over from and pick off-ball linebacker as the Titans’ biggest area of weakness, arguing that Kenneth Murray II is a downgrade from Azeez Al-Shaair.

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ESPN’s projected starting lineup for the Titans doesn’t match up with The Tennessean’s observations from OTAs and minicamp in some areas. In particular, ESPN still lists offensive lineman Dillon Radunz as a starting right tackle despite the fact that Radunz talked about working exclusively as a guard this spring and lists veteran Daniel Brunskill as the starting right guard even though Brunskill talked about practicing almost exclusively as a center in OTAs.

The Titans return for training camp practices on July 23.

Tennessee Titans schedule 2024

• Preseason Week 1 (Aug. 10): vs. San Francisco 49ers
• Preseason Week 2 (Aug. 17): vs. Seattle Seahawks
• Preseason Week 3 (Aug. 25): at New Orleans Saints
• Week 1 (Sept. 8): at Chicago Bears
• Week 2 (Sept. 15): vs. New York Jets
• Week 3 (Sept. 22): vs. Green Bay Packers
• Week 4 (Sept. 30): at Miami Dolphins
• Week 5: Open date
• Week 6 (Oct. 13): vs. Indianapolis Colts
• Week 7 (Oct. 20): at Buffalo Bills
• Week 8 (Oct. 27): at Detroit Lions
• Week 9 (Nov. 3): vs. New England Patriots
• Week 10 (Nov. 10): at Los Angeles Chargers
• Week 11 (Nov. 17): vs. Minnesota Vikings
• Week 12 (Nov. 24): at Houston Texans
• Week 13 (Dec. 1): at Washington Commanders
• Week 14 (Dec. 8): vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
• Week 15 (Dec. 15): vs. Cincinnati Bengals
• Week 16 (Dec. 22): at Indianapolis Colts
• Week 17 (Dec. 29): at Jacksonville Jaguars
• Week 18 (TBD): vs. Houston Texans

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.

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OMAHA, NEBRASKA – JUNE 24: The Tennessee Volunteers celebrate after defeating the Texas A&M Aggies to win the Division I Men’s Baseball Championship held at Charles Schwab Field on June 24, 2024 in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

Some national championships come as coronations, teams rolling through the College World Series finals to the trophy presentation. Some national championships, however, are ground out; every out, every run fought for.

Tennessee had to fight for the 2024 national title. It won more games this season than any team in the last 22 years and collected every trophy it could have. Yet, every step of the way, it had to fight.

Tennessee didn’t win the SEC regular season title until the final day of the season. It lost its opening game of the SEC Tournament, forcing it to play through the loser’s bracket. It was forced to a Game 3 in super regionals by Evansville, the Cinderella of the NCAA Tournament. It lost the opening game of the CWS championship series to Texas A&M, pushing its backs against the wall.

Even before this season, it was a fight for the program. Tennessee was making its third appearance in the CWS in the last four years but went 0-2 in 2021 and 1-2 in 2023. In between, the 2022 team was the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament but was upset at home by Notre Dame in super regionals.

So, of course, Game 3 of the championship series on Monday didn’t come easy. Tennessee never trailed on the night, thanks in part to a leadoff home run from Christian Moore. But every time it pushed ahead A&M punched back. Even Tennessee’s runs didn’t come easily, especially its sixth run, which proved decisive. On that play, Hunter Ensley had to make a last-second adjustment to his dive into the plate to avoid getting tagged.

But, in the end, Tennessee found a way, just like it has all season long. The Volunteers defeated the Aggies, 6-5, to win the first national championship in program history.

“No better team to win for the University of Tennessee than a bunch of guys who were truly the definition of a team,” coach Tony Vitello said. “And no better play for our program to, I think, be the winning run on that slide, a guy that’s just built with a ton of grit. His teammates follow his leadership and it’s a great example of how this group got things done.”

This Tennessee team is arguably the greatest team in college baseball history. It finished the season 60-13, setting an SEC record for overall wins. It is the first team to win 60 games in a season since 2002 Florida State and it won more games than any national champion since 1989 Wichita State, which went 68-16 in a very different era of the sport. It won both the SEC regular-season and tournament titles. It had one losing weekend all year and none since the middle of March (which was also the only time it lost consecutive games all season). It was the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and the first No. 1 overall seed to win the national championship since 1999 Miami.

The Volunteers have star power at the heart of the team. All-American second baseman Christian Moore will be a first-rounder next month and possibly will be taken in the top 10 picks. Third baseman Billy Amick won’t have to wait much longer to hear his name. Left fielder Dylan Dreiling, the College World Series Most Outstanding Player, has played his way up draft boards. Righthander Drew Beam and All-American first baseman Blake Burke will probably be second rounders and go down as two of the best players at their positions in program history.

In short, there will be big leaguers from this team. But that was never the story of the 2024 Volunteers. In his six years in Knoxville, Vitello has already had more talented teams during his Tennessee tenure — just two years since the end of the 2022 season, that team already has three big leaguers with more to come.

What these Volunteers mastered was the blend of talent and grit, an attitude that Vitello has tried to instill from the day he was hired. When Vitello arrived at Tennessee in the summer of 2017, Tennessee was stuck near the bottom of the SEC standings. It had made the SEC Tournament just three times in the previous 10 years and hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2005. The athletic department has a proud tradition, but the program needed a jolt.

Vitello was a first-time head coach. He knew Tennessee needed to find an identity, a niche to make its own and compete in the rugged SEC. Tennessee at the time couldn’t match facilities with Arkansas or Mississippi State. It didn’t have LSU’s tradition. It couldn’t simply lean into in-state players like Florida or Texas A&M.

What Vitello settled on was building a gritty program that played with an edge. That instructed his hires, from assistant coaches Frank Anderson and Josh Elander, who have been with him throughout his tenure, to support staff like Quentin Eberhardt, the program’s director of sports performance. It also instructed their efforts in recruiting and in practice.

That attitude was on full display in the 2024 team, embodied in players like Ensley, Moore and lefthander Zander Sechrist, who started and won Monday’s game.

“We gotta play with some attitude,” Vitello said. “We gotta play with some grit. And we’re going to have to get some guys that maybe don’t want to say yes to a school with a better winning record than us. Guys like that, like C-Mo and some others with some attitude, have done a lot for this program.”

That attitude, that grit is what led Ensley to last Sunday crash into the center field fence at full speed to make a catch. He was shaken up on the play and had to be replaced in center field the next game by Kavares Tears. He, too, barreled into the wall to make a catch.

“It’s the way I grew up, [with a] blue-collar family,” Ensley said. “My whole family is just tough. Growing up with them that was kind of what was preached. You show up every day you work hard, you play hard and if it doesn’t go your way, work harder and do better.

“Obviously in center field I’m willing to run through a wall for this team. I would do it a million times over.”

The mindset instilled in the program isn’t just limited to grit or an edge. The Volunteers were also a close-knit group, who loved playing together and for their coaches. That camaraderie ran through the roster, helping them to get contributions from up and down the roster.

Sechrist was one such player. A senior who makes his living on pitchability and not on pure stuff, he worked his way into the rotation and eventually became the team’s best pitcher down the stretch. He on Monday held A&M to one run in 5.1 innings. He struck out seven and worked around six hits and a walk. Tennessee won each of his last six starts and he pitched to a 1.34 ERA in that run, which began on the final day of the regular season against South Carolina.

Sechrist is one of the few players who were a part of all three CWS teams in the last four years. He said the 2024 team stood out from any he played for.

“We had unfinished business, especially this being the third time we’ve been here in the last four years,” he said. “’21 we didn’t do well. ’22 you could arguably say that was the best college baseball team ever. ’23 we got to experience winning at least a game here, but the job wasn’t finished. And ’24 just felt a little different.

“I’m just blessed today to get the job done.”

Monday took a little bit of everything from the whole roster. Eight different players had at least one hit. Dreiling homered again, becoming the first player to homer in every game of a CWS finals. Moore capped one of the great all-time seasons in program history with a home run. Sechrist turned in another strong start and the bullpen held off a powerful, determined A&M lineup.

It ended with a raucous celebration that is just getting underway. Vitello leapt into the stands to celebrate with Tennessee fans. Peyton Manning came onto the field to soak in the atmosphere. Players hugged each other and did snow angels in confetti.

It was the perfect ending for a team that has fought for each other for five long months. Throughout the CWS, the Volunteers have talked about just wanting to soak up the moments and enjoy their last couple weeks together.

The Volunteers certainly enjoyed it Monday night. As a result, they’ll be forever linked together in Tennessee and college baseball history.