End-of-session meetings and sessions are coming at us fast and furious from Capitol Hill this week – and most likely next – and even though SB0872, the bill to delay implementation of the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act, is scheduled to be heard on the floor of the Senate on Thursday, as of right now we’re not really sure when the House Budget Subcommittee will hear the House version, HB0614.
So while we wait, and for your enjoyment, here is Senator Roy Herron asking the man who is in charge of our elections – who doesn’t think there is anything wrong with the voting machines we use now – (***insert eye roll here***) to man up and give Tennesseans the paper ballots they want (transcript here).
Why is the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act – passed almost unanimously in the House and Senate in 2008 – an almost flawless piece of legislation? First, it requires that our un-secure and unverifiable touch-screen voting machines be replaced before the November 2010 election with paper ballots (read by Optical Scan machines), and it guarantees three important processes to protect the vote in Tennessee:
1) Tennesseans will vote on paper ballots
2) The paper ballot becomes the ballot of record in case of a recount. (The electronic voting systems we have now only have one mechanism in place for a recount – press the same button again and get a repeat of the exact same totals you got before).
3) Mandatory random post-election audits in 3% of precincts (to insure that the Optical Scan machines are functioning properly).
It’s a rare thing when we can get so many legislators to agree on such a valuable piece of legislation. Please call your State reps and urge them to fight to keep the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act intact and on track for implementation for the 2010 elections.
