A Davidson County Judge has ruled TN Sec. of State Tre Hargett can use paper ballot machines as required by the state’s Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA).

Sec. Hargett has spent most of 2009 claiming he cannot abide by a new 2008 state law requiring paper ballots in the November 2010 elections because no machines meet the law’s requirements, an argue dismissed in court.

The TVCA was passed overwhelmingly by the state legislature in 2008 and quickly signed into law by Gov. Phil Bredesen.

Months of dithering:

In June, Sec. Hargett made what the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation called an “unsubstantiated claim” against a fair elections advocate (saying the advocate made a terrorist threat) for merely referencing on a blog the Battle of Athens, a violent Tennessee voter uprising recounted in the Department of State’s own publications.

“I really am not supposed to say anything more than that at this point,” Fontenay apologized. “We’d love to respond but we were asked by the TBI specifically not to respond. There definitely is another side to this, and we wish we could talk about it, but it’s not usually advisable to get the TBI mad at you. My hands are tied at this time.”

So then we phoned the TBI, whose spokeswoman Kristin Helm said basically there is no investigation, and she doesn’t know what Fontenay is talking about.

“We had to go pay Bernie a little visit,” Helm said. “We had a public official who felt as though he was being threatened, who felt there was something floating around in cyberland that was a threat. A couple of agents went to talk to Bernie and pretty much found the threats were unsubstantiated.”

In late June, the Department of State told NIT they will not abide by the law claiming there are no machines that meet the standards set forth by the law. The same day a Q&A was being published by the Department of State in response to NIT’s inquiry, Sec. Hargett and State Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins were in Memphis urging election officials to contact their law makers in support of postponing the new law. The legislative effort to postpone the law failed.

Here is an excerpt from a Q&A that has since been removed from the Department of State’s website.

What are some of the hurdles to meeting the implementation deadline?
Cost is obviously one, during an economic climate in which many local governments are struggling financially. However, a much bigger issue is the lack of availability of the equipment. The act requires counties to use equipment that meets the security and reliability standards adopted by the federal Election Assistance Commission in 2005. Currently, there are no vendors who sell equipment that meets those standards – in Tennessee or elsewhere in the country. Additionally, the commission’s certification process is very thorough, so it appears there is insufficient time for a vendor to complete that process and become certified before the 2010 deadline.

In July, the Department of State called the new law a “catch 22″ and began claiming it would be impossible to abide by the new law due to conditions a court has now ruled do not restrict the state.

“I fully support the goal of the Voter Confidence Act, which passed both houses of the General Assembly with broad bipartisan support,” Hargett said. “However, after researching the law, I believe it is unlikely that counties will be able to implement it before the November 2010 elections. In fact, the act as it was adopted creates a Catch-22 for county governments. Whether counties acquire new equipment or not, they will still not be in compliance with the act.”

Last week, State Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins responded to the Court’s decision by claiming it’s now the lawsuit that has been preventing his office from fully implementing the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act.

State Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins, one of the defendants in the case along with Secretary of State Tre Hargett, said in a statement that the pending lawsuit has made it more difficult to comply with the 2008 statute.

“Unfortunately, this lawsuit has stalled our efforts to seek paper ballot machines certified to the strongest standards,” Goins said.

It’s more than a little curious that Goins would now claim the lawsuit has  “stalled our efforts to seek paper ballot machines” when just months ago his office concluded such machines do not exist while lobbying state legislators to postpone the law for that reason alone.

The Tennessee Democratic Party responded to the court’s ruling echoing Chancellor Russell Perkins’ urging the Secretary of State should abide by the law.

Chancellor Russell Perkins issued his ruling after Common Cause Tennessee filed a lawsuit compelling the secretary of state to implement the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act, which requires all county election commissions to make the switch to optical scan machines and paper ballots before the November 2010 elections.

“Mr. Hargett cannot use the bogus claim anymore that the machines do not exist,” Forrester said. “Now maybe he will follow the law and do the job he was sworn to do. Fair and verifiable elections are part of the very foundations of our democracy. I do not understand why he is stalling on this issue.

Read more of NIT’s ongoing coverage of Secretary of State Tre Hargget’s conflict with voters and fair elections advocates over the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act:

• Fair election advocate lawyers up
• Caterwauling over the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act
• TNDP Chair Chip Forrester calls for General Assembly to fire Secretary of State Tre Hargett
• Secretary of State calls Voter Confidence Act a ‘catch-22′
• Bernie is still thinking about it
• Secretary of State: ‘there is insufficient time’ to uphold the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act
• Secretary of State to release Q&A on Tennessee Voter Confidence Act
• Fair election advocate to file criminal complaint against Tennessee Secretary of State
• Tennessee’s ‘warning’ to corrupt politicians
• Secretary of State makes unsubstantiated ‘terrorist threat’ claim

Tags: Elections, Mark Goins, Secretary of State, TBI, Tennessee, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Tennessee Voter Confidence Act, Tre Hargget, TVCA

This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 1:48 pm and is filed under Causes, Elections, Legislation, Politics, Public Policy, 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.