Communities throughout Tennessee will receive financing to build or repair schools as a result of the Tennessee State School Bond Authority’s (TSSBA) action on Thursday.

The TSSBA finalized plans to sell up to $184 million worth of Qualified School Construction Bonds (QSCBs) as part of a program created by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The bonds are tax credit bonds that provide a federal tax credit to the investor on a quarterly basis. The bonds may also pay a supplemental coupon to the bondholders on a quarterly basis.

Thursday the TSSBA selected a bond underwriting team, approved a final bond resolution and finalized documents needed to move forward with the bond sale. The TSSBA had preliminarily approved the loans in September and, after some revisions in loan amounts and the addition of the City of Kingsport as a new borrower, the revised list of project loans were approved by the TSSBA.

The TSSBA will invest the proceeds from the bond sale in the State Pooled Investment Fund (SPIF) and will disburse the funds to the communities to pay the expenses related to their school construction projects.

Montgomery Central High School after the renovations

The communities authorized to receive portions of the bond money will be required to spend the proceeds on qualified projects within three years of the bond sale and comply with federal Davis-Bacon regulations. The sale is expected to be completed with bond proceeds available for disbursement in early December. Additionally, the communities are required to enter into binding contracts for at least 10 percent of their allocation of the bond proceeds within six months after the bond sale.

The TSSBA members are: Comptroller Justin P. Wilson, Secretary of State Tre Hargett, Treasurer David H. Lillard Jr., Governor Phil Bredesen, Finance and Administration Commissioner Dave Goetz, Board of Regents Chancellor Charles Manning and acting University of Tennessee President Jan Simek.

“I am very pleased that we have been able to finalize the details necessary to move forward these bonds,” said Comptroller Wilson. “These are worthy projects and they will provide much needed help to students and educators across the state.”

“Through enabling legislation the General Assembly has empowered us to extend this opportunity for substantive capital projects to local schools. We are delighted the communities availed themselves of this program.” Secretary Hargett said. “The QSCB program is an exciting direct-benefit use of stimulus funds impacting local communities and our children.”

“Education is a key to Tennessee moving forward economically,” Treasurer Lillard said. “Providing better facilities for our children should help their academic achievement over the long term.”

Of the total bond proceeds, Memphis City Schools will receive $42,960,000 and Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools will receive $21,760,000 for various projects. Those two school systems received direct allocations from the federal government because they were among the nation’s top 100 local educational agencies with the largest numbers of school-age children from families living below the poverty level.

The other participating communities that were selected through a competitive application process to receive bond proceeds are as follows:

• Clarksville/Montgomery County – $20 million for renovation of Montgomery Central High School
• Cleveland City Schools – $4,160,000 for a new science wing at Cleveland High School
• Cumberland County Schools -$2,680,000 for infrastructure and energy-efficiency upgrades at Cumberland County High School
• Dyer County – $9 million for construction of a new elementary school
• Dyersburg City Schools – $2,960,000 for renovations to Dyersburg Intermediate School
• Hamblen County Schools – $11,280,000 for land acquisition and construction at Morristown-Hamblen High School East
• Hawkins County – $1,418,347 for renovations to Rogersville Middle School and $1,221,653 for renovations to Surgoinsville Middle School
• Henry County – $2.6 million for new construction and improvements to E.W. Grove School
• Johnson City Schools – $8,160,000 for renovations and new construction at Science Hill High School
• Kingsport – $1,240,000 for renovations at Dobyns-Bennett High School
• Maryville City Schools – $18,760,000 for construction of Coulter Grove Intermediate School
• Shelby County Schools – $13,760,000 to demolish and replace Elmore Park Middle School
• Sullivan County – $15,480,000 to renovate and expand Ketron Intermediate School
• Union County – $6,807,054 to build Paulette Middle School and $352,946 to renovate and expand Luttrell Elementary School

The revised guidelines are aimed at eliminating potential conflicts of interest by prohibiting individuals or companies from representing more than one side in derivative transactions. These revisions require greater transparency in the way information is reported and communicated about the transactions and require comprehensive disclosure of fees paid.

Cities and counties will have to demonstrate that they employ people with sufficient expertise to understand these complex transactions, including a chief financial officer and an accountant. Cities and counties must also meet minimum outstanding debt requirements and have an audit committee and a capital improvement plan.

Communities that do not meet all the requirements laid out in the guidelines have the option of appearing before state Comptroller Justin P. Wilson or his staff to explain that they fully understand all the risks involved and can comply with their debt and derivative management policy and the ongoing risk monitoring and reporting requirements.

“The goal here is not to prohibit cities and counties from entering into swaps, forward purchase agreements or similar transactions,” Comptroller Wilson said. “Our goal is to make sure officials in these cities and counties really understand what they’re doing. And the taxpayers who live in these cities and counties should know what risks are being undertaken and what fees are being paid on their behalf.”

Comptroller Wilson became concerned after a number of cities and counties ran into financial trouble after using swaps and other derivative transactions to lower interest rates on their bond debt without fully understanding the risks involved.

On May 1, he presented the State Funding Board with a set of proposed changes to the guidelines. The guidelines approved by the State Funding Board Tuesday include revisions that were made after receiving public input throughout the spring, summer and early fall.

Other members of the State Funding Board are: Secretary of State Tre Hargett, Treasurer David H. Lillard Jr., Finance and Administration Commissioner David Goetz and Governor Phil Bredesen.

The subcommittee’s vote clears the way for state officials to spend $40 million to purchase about 3,836 acres near Interstate 40 in southwest Haywood County. The site is envisioned as a future home for companies which will provide a new economic engine for West Tennessee.

“As a West Tennessean, I’m proud to support this project,” said Treasurer David H. Lillard Jr., one of the subcommittee members. “Like many areas of our state, unemployment is high in Haywood County and other West Tennessee counties. Development on the megasite has the potential to change that area’s economic fortunes for the better.”

“Megasites in Middle and East Tennessee have successfully lured big businesses to those areas – Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga and the Hemlock Semiconductor plant in Clarksville,” said Secretary of State Tre Hargett, another subcommittee member. “I am pleased that West Tennesseans will now have the same opportunity to reap the economic benefits associated with a TVA certified megasite.”

The full State Building Commission discussed the project Sept. 10, but did not take a vote because Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD) officials were unable to provide information to identify exactly which parcels of land would be targeted for purchase.

At the Sept. 10 meeting, members of the State Building Commission agreed to let the Executive Subcommittee make the final decision about the project’s approval. The subcommittee planned to discuss the project at a meeting last week, but Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development officials requested another delay to work out remaining issues with property owners.

“Anything worth doing is worth doing right,” said Comptroller Justin P. Wilson, another subcommittee member. “Before committing to spend $40 million of taxpayer money, we just felt it was important to be clear about exactly what land we would be purchasing. Now that ECD has provided the information and assurances we requested, we’re happy to give our support to this worthwhile project.”

The State Building Commission Subcommittee is comprised of the Secretary of State, Comptroller of the Treasury, State Treasurer, and the Commissioner of Finance and Administration, Mr. Dave Goetz.

Secretary of State Tre Hargett

Tennessee is set up for an election debacle, thanks to the states’ reliance on paperless electronic voting. Currently 93 out of 95 counties in Tennessee use these machines.

Unless the Secretary of State Hargett takes swift and certain prompt action, thousands of votes will be at risk in the 2010 election. Computer scientists agree that any electronic voting machine can fail without warning. SOS Hargett should pay attention to the lessons learned by other states.

North Carolina found out the hard way that paperless voting machines can lose thousands of votes. In the November 2004 Presidential Election, 4,400 votes were permanently lost by “state of the art” computerized voting machines. The AP described that election as “A Florida-style nightmare …with thousands of votes missing and the outcome of two statewide races still up in the air.” On top of that, the outcome of one statewide election contest was too close to call. There would have been a $3 million dollar “do-over” election if one of the candidates hadn’t voluntarily withdrawn. (See North Carolina Ballot Blues)

So why take a chance? Tennessee has time to act now and protect the 2010 election from mishaps. North Carolina adopted a paper ballot law in August 2005 and had new voting machines running an election in April 2006. Thanks to these paper ballot optical scan machines, North Carolina saw a our undervote rate for President cut in half in the 2008 election. (An undervote occurs when for some reason a ballot is cast but no vote is registered for the candidate.)

Tennessee already has warning signs of an election meltdown to come:

In the past two years, Tennessee voting machines have flipped votes, disappeared votes, cut off candidate names, omitted candidate names; run out of memory mid-election, and one voting machine even went up in smoke and perhaps votes with it.

Tennessee’s election problems will not be that easily remedied. These disasters show that many election workers are in over their heads.

Problems with voting machines, central tabulators using outdated and secret software, registration confusion, poll worker training, provisional ballots and absentee ballots are not easily remedied.

Even federally certified voting machines can be unreliable: today’s machines meet federal standards as long as they do not exceed a 9.2% failure rate in a 15-hour election day.

Add to all this the lack of a voter-verified paper ballot and you have no disaster recovery plan.

This is the case with counties using touchscreen or “dial a vote” machines

The security of their votes depends on the software, source code and hardware of the voting machines. Election workers’ ability, or lack thereof, to operate and troubleshoot the machines can affect the security of the votes as well.

The perfect election storm brews

A Diebold voting machine was smashed in Allentown, PA during the Primary Election on 04/22/08

• Nov 4, 2008 Shelby County. 100 voters disenfranchised. The Barlett municipal ballot did not load onto the machines in some polling places, preventing many Barlett voters from being able to vote in the city election. http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=8132
• Oct 25, 2008. Davidson County. Disappearing vote. 1 voter never saw her vote on the paperless machine. An iVotronic touch screen malfunctioned and didn’t let a voter see her ballot, the voter said “I didn’t see the ballot to actually choose anything.” http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=8052
• Oct 22, 2008. Knox County. Candidate names chopped off. The eSlate electronic voting machine displayed only the first three letters of the selected candidate’s name on the review screen. This caused confusion and likely disenfranchised many voters. People voting for Barack Obama saw a review screen said they voted for “Electors for BAR”. http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=8022
• Oct 21, 2008. Davidson County (Nashville). Vote-flipping on the iVotronic paperless voting machine. Patricia Earnhardt pressed the button for Obama multiple times, yet it didn’t highlight. …The third time the poll worker pressed the button, the box beside Cynthia McKinney lit up — several rows down. http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=8004
• Nov 9, 2006. Knox County. Votes up in smoke. Circuitry in a Hart InterCivic eSlate fails, calling into question over 2600 e-ballots. Knox County Election Commission Chair Pamela Reeves explains what happened to the machine. “Apparently, what it did was it smoked. http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6805
• Nov 7, 2006. Williamson County. Broken machines. Only two ES&S iVotronic touch screens worked in Grassland precinct. http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6763
• Nov 7, 2006. Hawkins County. Most machines not working. ES&S iVotronic touch screens didn’t work. Most of the voting machines were down until noon, http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6763
• Nov 3, 2006. Shelby County. Missing memory cards. These cards are the equivalent of ballot boxes. Several electronic voting cards, used to cast ballots on Diebold touch screens, are missing from a polling place in Memphis, according to the Tennessee Republican Party. http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/local/article/0,2845,MCA_25340_5115699,00.html
• Nov 2, 2006 Sullivan County. Not enough memory in machine. The control device (Judges Booth Controller – JBC) for Hart InterCivic eSlate voting machines shut down after 10,000 ballots were cast in early voting. The JBC would hold no more ballots in its memory. http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6701

Secretary of State Hargett must do his professional best to implement Tennessee’s paper ballot law in time for the 2010 election

Save Tennessee from the “perfect storm” that is brewing. Avoid the kind of fiasco that happened in Carteret County, North Carolina in November 2004, where 4,438 votes were lost — giving North Carolina “the worse election problem in the country,” according to David L. Dill of Stanford University.

Watch this video, learn to what Carteret County, North Carolina voters had to say about losing their votes on a paperless machine in the November, 2004 election. This could very well be Tennessee voters in 2010:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Several states have enacted paper ballot laws successfully

North Carolina saw increased transparency and lower residual vote rates. Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist took the bold step to restore integrity to Florida’s elections by swiftly banning paperless voting and implementing paper ballot optical scan systems across the state, increasing confidence in the system and lowering costs to administer elections. New Mexico banned paperless voting and also saw their undervote rate decrease.

Despite the citizens’ overwhelming support of Tennessee’s paper ballot law, the law has not been implemented. There is funding and time to enact the law. $37.1 million in HAVA money is still available according to Tennessee’s Office of Legislative Budget Analysis. Of this amount, only $25 million will be needed to purchase the necessary equipment. Despite the fact that Tennessee needs to move now to get ready for the 2010 elections, nothing has been done. Enough is enough.

Tennessee voters should tell Secretary of State Hargett to implement the paper ballot law in time for the 2010 elections. Tell him that you want an election system free from inaccuracy, malfunction and fraud. Contact Secretary of State Hargett by email at tre. or better yet, call the SOS office at (615) 741-2819

About Joyce McCloy

This article was written by Joyce McCloy of NC Coalition for Verified Voting and also Voting News Blog.

Phone: 336-794-1240
Email:

Rep. Gary Odom, D-Davidson County

Nashville – State Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins has again refused to comply with state law, said House Democratic Leader Gary Odom on Friday.

“Goins and Secretary of State Tre Hargett have continuously failed to enact Tennessee’s Voter Confidence Act of 2008, which mandates the purchase of optical-scan voting machines that use paper ballots,” said Odom (D-Nashville). “The use of paper ballots ensures that Tennesseans’ votes are counted correctly.”

In a letter dated July 31st, Goins, in response to several requests from Odom’s office, said that he had the sole authority to “interpret” the law and was not going to implement the Act.

“I’m not going to stand by and let Mr. Goins ignore the law that was passed in a bi-partisan fashion in 2008,” Odom said. “The intent of the Voter Confidence Act of 2008 is simple: it is to put into place an election process that uses optical-scan paper ballot machines for the 2010 elections. To conclude anything else is simply an effort to ignore the law.”

Tennessee Secretary of State, Tre Hargett

“Secretary of State Tre’ Hargett and his election coordinator Mark Goins, in one of their first actions in office, had a bill introduced to repeal the Voter Confidence Act,” Odom said.

“They later amended it to extend the deadline so that they could get enough votes to at least stall the purchase of paper ballot machines,” Odom said. “Ultimately, the bill to delay the implementation of the Voter Confidence Act did not pass. Goins needs to do his job and implement the Act.”

The Secretary of State currently has approximately $37 million in federal funds appropriated by Congress. These funds may only be used to buy voting machines and for the administration of elections.

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.”

“To clear up any ambiguity in the current law I proposed an amendment that would make it clear that machines certified to 2002 standards could be used in the state of Tennessee. Hargett fought that amendment every step of the way,” Odom said. “It’s very disingenuous of him to now complain that he can’t implement this act.”

“I believe Tennesseans deserve the confidence that their vote is counted and is counted accurately.”

Statement on implementation of Voter Confidence Act By House Democratic Leader Gary Odom

State Rep. Gary Odom, House Democrat Leader

In 2008 the Tenn. General Assembly passed the Voter Confidence Act. This legislation had broad bipartisan support and its primary purpose was to ensure that elections in Tenn. would be conducted with a system of voting machines, referred to as optical scanners, which provide a paper trail. According to a Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations study on the subject, the paper trail is essential to reassure voters that their vote is being counted accurately and to provide a means to audit the machines or recount votes in an election.

Secretary Hargett has stated that the Act is very specific and requires the state to use machines certified to 2005 standards. In fact, the Act does not specify 2005 machines. It says that we shall use machines certified by the federal Election Assistance Commission.

Recently, the Secretary of State issued a statement to the press suggesting that he cannot fulfill his obligations under the 2008 Voter Confidence Act. It is his incorrect interpretation that we must use machines certified to 2005 standards. To clear up any ambiguities that Secretary Hargett wrongly perceived, Senator Herron and I introduced an amendment that would have explicitly allowed machines certified to 2002 standards or better. Secretary Hargett fought this amendment every step of the way.

The fact is, Secretary Hargett does not want to implement this Act. He had legislation introduced in the past legislative session to repeal the Act. Ultimately the bill was amended to delay implementation of the ACT until following the 2010 elections. The legislation eventually stalled in the Senate.

Under current law Secretary Hargett is required to implement a verifiable voting system in the state of Tennessee. The Election Assistance Commission will approve within the next few weeks two different Scanners that could be available for use in Tenn.’s 2010 Elections.

I call on Secretary Hargett to quit dragging his feet and implement this system in order to assure that votes are counted accurately. Tennesseans deserve the confidence that their votes are counted and counted accurately.

This year the Republican gained control of the Tennessee House and Senate; the first time in 140 years. Therefore, they have the numbers to replace the current Constitutional Officers (all appointed by Democrats). In Part 1 on this series, I discussed the Constitutional Officer of the Comptroller. Part 2 discussed the position of Treasurer.  This article will discuss the duties and candidates of Secretary of State.

Per the Secretary of State website, the Secretary of State is charged with  keeping a register of official acts and proceedings of the governor and, when required, the legislature.  Like  the other two Constitutional officers, the Secretary of State sits on numerous state boards and committees.  The most visible duty of the Secretary of State has to do with the fact that the State Election Commission, the Tennessee Ethics Commission and the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance are attached to the Department of State for administrative matters relating to receipts, disbursements, expense accounts, budgets, audits and other related items.  The Secretary of State appoints each county’s election officials.

The Candidates:

David Shirley, 66, is from Memphis, where he owns David Shirley Construction and is a co-owner of Connor/Shirley Realtor.  Per Mr. Shirley’s application he attended, but did not graduate, from University of Memphis.  No other higher education information was listed.  He served in the Tennessee Legislature as an elected Representative from 1980-1996.  He has also served on the Shelby County Republican Steering Committee, as well as being honored in 2008 by Volunteers of America as a “Community Partner of the Year.”

Mr. Shirley stressed that his years of experience in running two successful business, combined with 16 years of legislative experience, puts him in the unique position of being well qualified for the position of Secretary of State.  Per campaignmoney.com, Mr. Shirley made no political donations in the last election cycle.

Tre Hargett, 39, is the current Chairman of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority. He has served five terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives (District 97 from 1996-2004), twice elected as the leader of the House Republican Caucus.  Mr. Hargett also was the Vice President for the Southeast Region of the Rural Metro Corporation (publicly held), where he over saw a 500 employees that generated over $40 million in annual revenues.  Per the company website, “Rural/Metro Corporation is a leading provider of emergency and non-emergency medical transportation services, fire protection and other safety-related services to municipal, residential, commercial and industrial customers in approximately 400 communities throughout the United States.”

Mr. Hargett holds a B.B.A. and M.B.A. from University of Memphis.  Per campaignmoney.com, Mr. Hargett made no political donations in the last election cycle.

James Rollins, 49, is new to politics.  He owns Maaco  Collision Repair and Auto Painting in Clarksville, Tennessee, and has extensive background is security services.  Mr. Rollins has a B.S from University of Tennessee, M.S. from Tennessee State University, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Redding University.  He teaches Psychology as an adjunct professor Austin Peay State University, and has also taught at Middle Tennessee State University.

Inspired by a radio show to apply for the position of Secretary of State, Mr. Rollins was one of the few candidates that did not indicate he would immediately replace all the election officials in all 95 counties.  Per campaignmoney.com, Mr. Rollins made no political donations in the last election cycle.

Jerry Scott, 67, from Murfreesboro, is a retired Brigadier General from the United State Air Force.  Mr. Scott is a partner in a business that installs and services security cameras.  He has served as a circuit court judge,  and as a judge on the court of criminal appeals and the Tennessee Court of Judiciary.  He has also served as the City Attorney for the city of Waynesboro.

Mr. Scott graduated from Austin Peay State University in 1962; obtained his JD from Vanderbilt in 1965; and obtained his LLM (Masters in Taxation) from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1986.  From 1970-1995, he taught Law as an adjunct professor at Columbia State Community College.

Per campaignmoney.com, Mr. Scott made no political donations in the last election cycle.

Jim Bryson, 47, is the Chairman of the Board for 20/20 Research Inc., one of the fastest growing companies in Middle Tennessee and rated as one of the top research firm in the world by the American Marketing Association (2008).  It started from two employees and now has over 100 in three states.

Mr. Bryson was elected to State Senate in 2002, named Republican Freshman of the Year in 2003, and ran as a Republican for Governor in 2006.

Mr. Bryson has  bachelor from Baylor University (Finance) and a M.B.A. from Vanderbilt (concentration in Marketing).

Per campaignmoney.com, it appears Mr. Jim Bryson made one political donation in the last election cycle ($1,000 Fred Thompson Political Action Committee , 12/21/07).

Larry Scroggs is an attorney from Shelby County.  He served in the Navy, and received numerous decorations.

Mr. Scroggs graduated from Harding University in 1963 with B.S. in journalism and social sciences.  He obtained his JD from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1971.  He was appointed as a Municipal Judge in Germantown from 1980-1986.  He represented District 94 in the State Senate from 1966-2002, including being elected Republican floor leader.  Mr. Scroggs is currently the Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Counsel for the Juvenile Court of Shelby County.

Per campaignmoney.com, it appears Mr. Scroggs  made one political donation in the last election cycle ($500 John McCain 2008 Inc. , 12/20/07).

Randy Stamps, 49, obtained his B.S. in Government Public Administration from David Lipscomb in 1981.  He went on to obtain his JD from Pepperdine University in 1984.  Mr. Stamps has over 20 years of political experience in Tennessee, having served 10 years in the House of Representatives, five years as political director and state director of the Republican party, as well as other assignments.  He also served as an interim appointment as Sumner County Circuit Court Judge in 1999, as well as on the Sumner County School Board from 2000-20008.

Per campaignmoney.com, it appears Mr. Stamps made no political donations in the last election cycle.

William Baird, 56, is currently the Mayor of Campbell County.  He has also represented State District 36 from 1988-2008 in the House of Representatives.  From 1997 – 2008, he served as the Executive Director of the USDA/FDA in Campbell County.

Mr. Baird graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1987 with a degree in Agricultural Business.  Mr. Baird also serves on the Campbell County Boys and Girls Club, as well as other local civic organizations.

Per campaignmoney.com, it appears Mr. Baird made no political donations in the last election cycle.

Current Secretary of State Riley Darnell, 68, is a  former captain, U.S. Air Force, serving as judge advocate general 1966-69; he holds a B.S.  from Austin Peay State University, 1962; J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School, 1965; was selected to attend Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University, 1973; and is a member of Civitan Club, Clarksville Chamber of Commerce, American Bar Association, Montgomery County Bar Association.

While representing state Senate District 22, he served as Senate majority leader 1989-1992. He was the speaker’s designee to Fiscal Review committee in addition to being a member of the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Southern Legislative Conference of the Council of State Governments. First elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1970, he represented the 67th House district in the 87th, 88th, 89th, 90th and 91st General Assemblies. Elected in 1980 to the Tennessee Senate, he served in the 92nd, 93rd, 94th, 95th, 96th and 97th General Assemblies. He was elected Tennessee secretary of state in January 1993.

Conclusion:

I commend the Republicans for attempting to make the process “transparent”; however, it is only transparent to those that are looking at it.  I encourage you to take some time to read up on this issue, the candidates and the process.  Contact your Representative and Senator and express your opinion, and follow up on how they vote in January.

Resources:

http://www.state.tn.us/sos/

http://taxingtennessee.blogspot.com/2008/12/constitutional-officers-candidate.html

http://www.ruralmetro.com/

http://campaignmoney.com/