Newly appointed Rutherford County Election Commission Chair Tom Walker violated state law on Monday when he demanded reporters leave a public meeting of the county election commission. Not only did he violate the law, he and fellow Election Commissioner Dorris Jones then stated to the media that they don’t care what the law says. Jones spiced it up a bit and added that the state’s Sunshine Law is just plain old “crazy.”

This type of behavior by people we entrust with our state’s election process is beyond unacceptable. Their behavior is in direct violation of the law and violates the very trust voters have in our constitutionally protected voting process.

What other laws do partisan election officials in Tennessee feel are “crazy” enough to blatantly violate? According to Rutherford County Democratic Party Chairman Jonathon Fagan, RCEC Chairman Walker owes it to the voters of Rutherford County and the state of Tennessee to resign his position immediately. Fagan says Election Commissioner Doris Jones should do the same.

“Americans value free and fair elections. Rutherford County citizens deserve adults on the Election Commission who know and obey the rule of law. Otherwise, our trust in the democratic process is undermined. We don’t need people in control of our election process who blatantly express their disregard for state law,” said RCDP Chair Jonathon Fagan.

It is beyond disturbing to hear partisan members of any county election commission proclaiming to the media that they don’t respect the law. This cannot be helpful for Rutherford County’s Sen. Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro) who spent a great deal of this session seeking to delay state required use of paper ballots in Tennessee elections until after 2010.

RCEC Chairman Walker told voters of Rutherford County he doesn’t care what the law says. Sen. Ketron appears to brush aside the reasoning of the House and Senate that passed a law requiring paper ballots be used in 2010. Presumably the voters of Tennessee should join them in not caring, and that is a regrettable message for any party to promote.

Tennessee’s Sunshine Law is anything but “crazy.” There is a reason the law protects the public’s right to meetings of public officials who are paid to serve the tax payers. If any public meeting deserves more transparency it’s how our state manages our elections.

Read more from other bloggers from across the state:

Mary Mancini:

First, they introduce laws that would make it easier to disenfranchise voters (luckily they were beaten back) while attempting to repeal the paper ballot bill. Then, they systematically begin replacing county election coordinators with their own - and receiving a lot of push back in some cases.

There’s a trickle down attitude emanating from the Secretary of State’s office that’s passing through the State Election Coordinator’s office and reaching the county election coordinator’s office. What else could explain the recent news uncovered by the Rutherford County Democratic Party that it’s new Republican Election Coordinator wants to hold closed door meetings?

Michael Silence:

What a slap in the face to the general public.

Matthew Hurtt:

What is disheartening about this event is that the victim is not governmental transparency, but rather it is decorum and representation of the facts by the corporate-owned local finger stainer and the non-corporate owned local finger stainer.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Democrats, Politics, Public Policy, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.