Democracy?

As we are learning about literacy campaigns, we are being exposed simultaneously to another type of campaign: voting campaigns. However, I recently discovered that whatever fervor I had for voting would be wasted on this election, for despite being a registered voter in the state of Tennessee, I cannot vote. I mailed in my absentee ballot request form a week or two ago and just received a letter from the voting commission stating that I am unable to vote via an absentee ballot because this will be the first election in which I vote, and in the state of Tennessee, you have to appear in person, not as an absentee voter, when it's your first time to vote. Has anyone else fallen victim to this rule? I hadn't heard of this policy before, or I would have registered in the state of Massachusetts so I could vote in this presidential election. To me, this seems undemocratic, for it inhibits people's ability to vote. I hope everyone else's attempts to vote were/are more successful than mine was.