From the lips of our friends over at Common Cause/Gathering to Save Our Democracy, to ears of Davidson County Election Administrator Ray Barret: Malfunctioning Voting Machines Should be Removed!
Common Cause and Gathering to Save our Democracy, two groups who worked on voting machine reform and successfully worked to pass the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act this year, are concerned about malfunctioning and non-functioning voter machines in Davidson County.
In the Tennessean on Saturday, October 25, it was reported that several individuals doing early voting had extreme difficulty with their voting machines. The problems experienced included:
(1) Screens not appearing, which did not allow a vote to be recorded;
(2) The inability to vote for the preferred presidential candidate and the machine flipping the vote to another candidate even after several attempts by the machine operator to try to correct it. In one case, the machine operator finally was able to get the machine to work, it is hoped.“We all share an interest in all votes being counted accurately,” said Dick Williams, state chairman of Common Cause. “Fairness demands that machines demonstrating defective operation be immediately taken out of service and/or the voter be allowed to use a paper ballot if the machine doesn’t work.”
“We ask the mayor to consult with the Metro Election Administrator to have this happen before more voters are disenfranchised. We ask all voters to immediately tell the machine operators if there is a problem and ask for a new machine or a paper ballot.”
If you are registered, you have the right to vote.
Contact: Dick Williams 886-4146
Common Cause/Gathering to Save our Democracy
If you have problems with your machine, i.e. votes flipping, can’t get your choice to register, etc., and you can’t get the machine taken out of service, please start telling everyone else in line exactly which machine is having problems and suggest they refuse to use that machine. This could put pressure on the officer of elections at your precinct to quarantine that machine. Perhaps others have already complained to the officials, election integrity activists, and lawyers waiting outside – but the other voters waiting in line also need to know.
