Topic: elections

Odom: Hargett fought effort to implement paper balloting in elections

July 10, 2009 |

Amendment to allow use of available machines undermined by SOS

Nashville — More than $25 million in federal funding to help implement the ”Tennessee Voter Confidence Act” is sitting idle because of an effort by the secretary of state to stall implementation of a paper trail in the 2010 elections, House Democratic Leader Gary Odom said Thursday.

“This money was provided by Congress to help the states provide for fair elections and to give coordinators the ability to determine that vote counts are correct beyond the shadow of a doubt,” Odom said. “Why there is such opposition to implementing this act is beyond me.”

Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett

Secretary of State Tre Hargett (R)  said in a statement issued Tuesday that “the act is very specific” in requiring the state to use machines set to 2005 standards set by the federal Election Assistance Commission.

“This is simply not true. Nowhere in the federal act does it say we must use 2005 standards. It says we must use certified standards. The certification of 2005 standards does not nullify the 2002 standards, which will be available for next year’s elections. Hargett has interpreted the act to mean that 2002 machines are not acceptable to be used.” «Read the rest of this article»

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It’s time to ensure every vote is counted

By Bernie Ellis | April 21, 2008 |

Now, more than perhaps ever before, your voice will mean something for Tennessee. If you speak up in the next week, your voice will be amplified by the growing call to our legislature to move the TN Voter Confidence Act forward now. At this moment, this call from voters across Tennessee and across the nation is strongly bipartisan, broad-based and basic in its request: Let our votes count in Tennessee in ’08. What follows shortly is an email action alert that is being sent to our core election integrity supporters here in Tennessee. Some of you are among that group, but many more of you are not. That is why I am writing to all of you myself, one last time.

Please take 30 minutes to voice your support to replace our non-verifiable touch-screen voting machines in Tennessee with paper ballot-based voting systems in time for the November election. To help you do that, I am sending you the latest call to action from Gathering To Save Our Democracy (www.votesafetn.org), and I am appending on that action call a few more steps you can take if you believe as strongly as I do that free, fair and verifiable elections matter in this country. «Read the rest of this article»

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Supercells for Super Tuesday? Maybe!

By Christine Anne Piesyk | February 5, 2008 |

New England’s “old timers” used to say “if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute…”

It’s a thought that is holding true in middle Tennessee, which saw a mix of bone-chilling cold, snow, icy and icy rain — and a snow day for school age children — just last week. With those winter storms still fresh in our minds, we will be shedding our winter gear today as temperatures climb into the 70s by midday, and a summery dewpoint of 60+ is forecast. Tornadoes may on the agenda as well. Supercells for Super Tuesday.

As voters mass to the polls to cast votes in the state’s presidential primary, one of 24 primaries held nationwide today, clouds will be massing to the west, ready to roll through faster than bus on the campaign trail.

The National Weather Service has issued a special weather statement for an area including western and middle Tennessee through Tuesday night that calls for high winds, wind shear, and a fast moving cold front that “will be favorable for supercell tornadoes to form during the evening.” That cold front is expected to hit the Mississippi River by midnight, will push potentially severe storms well ahead of the actual front. Which means that late day voters should keep an eye on the sky. An an ear tuned to possible tornado sirens. «Read the rest of this article»

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Kurita: Let voters choose Lt. Governor, Secretary of State

By Christine Anne Piesyk | January 14, 2008 |

State Senator Rosalind Kurita, Speaker Pro Tempore of the Tennessee Senate, is looking for change in how Tennessee finds its Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State.

“It is time to change history and open up statewide elected positions in Tennessee — as in almost every other state in these United States of America. As we begin 2008, we need to create a position for a popularly elected Lieutenant Governor in Tennessee. We also need to popularly elect the Secretary of State.”

Kurita, in making this bid for new elected positions rather than the tradition of appointees to those key posts, said most Tennesseans “do not even realize that we do not have any voice in the selection of powerful statewide offices.”

“During this past legislative session, I passed the first leg of this complicated process in the Senate. Now we must pass it in the House.”

Kurita is now seeking support for this measure from the public, the voters into whose hands she would place the decisions on these important posts. “Your help is crucial to moving us forward in making “the election” process more open,” Kurita said. «Read the rest of this article»

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