Lawyers representing one current and seven former County Administrators of Elections filed a civil action today in U.S. District Court against eight Republican Party appointees to county election commissions.

The lawsuit claims recent firings of election administrators was politically motivated and violated the constitutional rights of the plaintiffs. Appointments to the positions of county election commissions are made by the party in power of both the House and Senate.

Defendants include Republican Party appointees in Cannon, DeKalb, Henry, Loudon, Putnam, Rhea, Rutherford and Weakley counties.

“It is irresponsible to threaten the facilitation of free and fair elections by using a political test to terminate highly qualified and experienced public servants who are responsible for protecting the very essence of our democracy,” said attorney Gary Blackburn. “The Republican Party and its officials’ politically motivated attempts to simultaneously replace administrators of elections across this state from a position which requires a great deal of institutional knowledge and understanding of the law is adverse to the very ideals on which our republic was founded. Tennesseans, like all Americans, expect and deserve to vote in well organized and legal elections and have their vote counted by someone who values democracy more than party politics,” Blackburn added.

Last month, Attorney General Bob Cooper stated that counties will be responsible for the cost of defending the actions of newly appointed election commissioners in court.

“Pursuant to (a section of Tennessee law), the county has the obligation to pay for the fees and expenses associated with legal representation of a county election commission in such a lawsuit,” says AG opinion 124, issued last week at the request of state Election Coordinator Mark Goins.

In April, the Attorney General indicated in opinion 52 that politically motivated firings could be found unconstitutional.

“In light of all the relevant authority, a court could find that the dismissal of a county administrator of elections solely on the basis of political party affiliation constitutes a violation of that individual’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights under the United State Constitution,” the opinion says.

WKRN News 2 reporter Chris Bundgaard will have more tonight in our 4 and 6 p.m. newscasts.

Liberadio:

The planning of election processes and the administration of elections should not be partisan yet as soon as Tennessee Republicans win control of the General Assembly they attempt to do way more than what the law allows.

By law, the party which controls the General Assembly can install a majority to the state and county election commissions. Republicans quickly moved to do just that and it is lawfully within their right to do so.

But, apparently, they’ve moved just as quickly to violate the law by firing county employees in non-policy-making positions for partisan reason. And it would be bad enough if this attempt to circumvent the law was simple blatant patronage, but it’s so much more than that.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 1:01 pm and is filed under Democrats, Elections, Politics, Republicans, Tennessee. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.