"Just like any other organization that would come to us wanting to register people to vote, we allow those organizations into our facilities," Crocker told NewsMax.com.

But so far, the only organization to attempt to register Davidson's prison inmates was the NAACP, she said.

"We do make it clear to the groups when they come into the jail that they can't bring a political agenda into the facility, but they can come in to register the individuals to vote," she explained.

Serving the greater Nashville area, the Davidson County lock-up houses approximately 1,700 inmates. Crocker estimated that since the NAACP's first visit two weeks ago, the organization had visited about 1,000 inmates.

Crocker stressed that the majority of individuals contacted by the NAACP were eligible to vote, since the jail houses mostly inmates who are being held on misdemeanor charges or were accused, but not yet convicted, of felonies.

She said the Tennessee State Election Commission would be responsible for screening out accused felons who had registered and were later found guilty. The Election Commission also would be responsible for delivering absentee ballots to misdemeanor convicts housed at Davidson.

So far the NAACP has visited only the minimum and medium security wings of the Nashville facility, but Crocker said the group would be permitted to register inmates in the maximum security wing if it wanted to.

A spokesman for the NAACP's national headquarters did not return a call by press time, but an assistant told NewsMax she was unfamiliar with any prison outreach voter registration program.

Radio host Valentine said he was astonished when he discovered the prison vote drive.

"I think it's absolutely amazing that the left is scraping the bottom of the barrel by targeting criminals," he told NewsMax. "We're talking about the NAACP here. It's sad, but they no longer represent mainstream black Americans."

"If this is going on at the local jail in Nashville, how many other jails are being targeted by the NAACP and other groups?" Valentine wondered.

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