LIBERADIO(!)

The Tennessee Democratic Party understands that the very foundation of our democracy is at stake and has come out in favor of implementing the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act – which was passed with almost unanimous bi-partisan support by the General Assembly and signed into law by the Governor in 2008 – by November of 2010. From the press release:

Today, the Tennessee Democratic Party called for state legislators to reject a plan to delay implementation of the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA).

“When the TVCA is implemented, Tennessee’s elections will be more secure, more accurate, and less expensive. There’s no good reason to wait,” said TNDP Chair Chip Forrester.

The TVCA was passed with broad bipartisan support and signed into law by Governor Phil Bredesen on June 5, 2008. The TVCA requires that all Tennessee counties make the switch to paper ballots before the November 2010 election.

Currently, only Hamilton and Pickett counties use paper ballots. The other 93 counties use paperless touch-screen voting machines, also known as Direct Record Electronic (DRE) machines. DREs are expensive to maintain, prone to error, and have no mechanism in place to produce verifiable results or meaningful recounts.

The legislation that would delay the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act is SB 0872, sponsored by Sen. Bill Ketron, (R-Murfreesboro) and HB 0614, sponsored by Rep. Curry Todd (R-Collierville).

“It’s true that the economy has forced everyone to cut back,” Forrester said. “And I recognize that our county commissioners are concerned about the cost of implementing the TVCA. But the new optical scan machines will be paid for by $25 million in federal funds from the Help America Vote Act. Plus, other states report that switching from DREs to paper ballots actually saves money in the long run.”

“Tennesseans deserve full confidence in the security of our elections. We can’t afford to put these crucial reforms on hold.”

Free, fair and verifiable elections are something we should all be able to agree on no matter what ideology or political affiliation, so I look forward to hearing the TNGOP make a similar statement urging implementation of the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act by 2010.