Perhaps that’s why we have to find out about his incorrect usage of words like “want to” and “can’t” and “The act is very specific, it requires counties to use only certified equipment that meets the security and reliability standards adopted by the federal Election Assistance Commission in 2005” from the neighbors (Hiya, AC! Can I borrow a cup of sugar, sugar?)
Uh-huh. I’m not sure what Tennessee Voter Confidence Act Mr. Hargett is looking at, but the one in my Tennessee code is not at all specific.
I’ve been through the Voter Confidence Act (and so can you!) and I cannot locate this language anywhere.
Again, there is no mention of requiring counties “to use only certified equipment that meets the security and reliability standards adopted by the federal Election Assistance Commission in 2005.”
Mr. Hargett is being very disingenuous in his press release. Instead of wanting to follow the law and give the voters of Tennessee secure and verifiable elections by implementing the very thorough Voter Confidence Act, he’s offering every excuse available – as he did during the last legislative session – to keep from complying with the law.
UPDATE: Election Integrity Activist Bernie Ellis responds to Mr. Hargett’s release:
When Secretary of State Hargett says that it will be “impossible ” for him to implement the Voter Confidence Act by 2010, the truth is that the only thing that is impossible in Tennessee these days seems to be to get our secretary of state to respect the law.
The 2005 EAC standards are the 2002 EAC standards in the main. The only differences between them deal more with accessibility issues for disabled voters, not with basic vote-counting or security procedures. Besides, these EAC are completely voluntary standards — there is no federal requirement that any state follow these voluntary standards.
More important, SoS Hargett does not tell us that none of the equipment now in use in Tennessee has been certified to either the 2002 or 2005 EAC standards. So if his principal concern was meeting some voluntary standards (which is what the EAC standards are — voluntary), he would have to do away with all of our existing voting equipment.
That is not the issue. Tre Hargett is less concerned about our voting on equipment that is not certified to some national voluntary standards just so long as the uncertified equipment we vote on is also untrustworthy and unverifiable. His principal goal seems to be to prevent us (at all costs) from voting on paper ballots counted by optical scan equipment, a voting system that will meet the Tennessee standard — the only meaningful standard in this state today. Why is that, exactly?”
Put another way: “There’s only one standard that matters now, and that’s the Tennessee standard — paper ballots and hand-counted audits, a standard that our General Assembly has affirmed not once, but twice. Everything else is just smoke-and-mirrors from a secretary of state who, for some reason, don’t want elections in Tennessee that we can trust and verify.”
[...] Hrm…a system that has a backup…where you might do both things…where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, it’s the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act that was passed almost unanimously in 2008 by both the state House and Senate and would allow us to vote on paper ballots that would then get counted by a machine but that maintains the paper ballot as the ballot of record in case of necessary recounts and is now the law that Secretary of State Hargett refuses to implement. [...]
[...] forward to discussing Chip’s call today for the firing of Secretary of State Tre Hargett for refusing to implement the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA), the law that mandates that all county election [...]
It’s probably the case that no other state has exactly the same language about the standards. I am researching exactly when this language was finalized. As you remember, there were dseveral amended versions with input from several people – not all of whom we agreed with. I’ll need more time to more fully answer this. I know that we certainly did not intend to create a catch 22, but wanted to have the best standards. We probably did not think in terms of 2005, but if election officials and a significant number of legislators have bought that then we need to clarify our position with legislative or legal action.
Although I am loath to quote former State Election Coordinator Brook Thompson (who got us in this mess to begin with) on anything, Brook was fond of saying “It is what it is.”
If no state currently uses (or can use) voting machines certified to 2005 EAC voluntary standards (because no voting machine company has applied to meet those standards), how on earth could “… shall have been certified by the election assistance commission as having met the applicable voluntary voting systems guidelines;[TCA Section 2-20-104(a)(1)]…†be interpreted to mean that Tennessee — and only Tennessee — must comply with those standards?
Whose interpretation is that anyway? Certainly not ours, certainly not any other state in this union, certainly not people who want free, fair and verifiable elections in Tennessee.
Seriously, Dick, since you’ve been in on more of these inside conversations than any of us, when (and by whom) was this convenient (for election fraud enablers) leap made to insert “2005″ in the interpretation of a law that says nothing about 2005 anywhere? Might it have been by the same people (or their legislative enablers) who don’t support verifiable elections to begin with?
Just askin’ (and really hoping for an answer).
Mary:
While I agree that the 2005 standards could be considered an “updated version of the 2002 standards,” without a legal or legislative clarification, the TVCA language is being interpreted as requiring 2005 standards. It would be easy to clarify this, but it would require the administrative, legislative, or judicial will to do so.
I don’t agree, Dick. Considering that the 2002 “applicable voluntary voting systems guidelines” from the EAC have not been replaced by 2005 standards – rather, they are simply an updated version of the 2002 standards – nothing is specific written into the TVCA about 2005 standards at all.
Unfortunately, the specific language does not use the term “2005″ but that’s what “shall have been certified by the election assistance commission as having met the applicable voluntary voting systems guidelines;[TCA Section 2-20-104(a)(1)]” means. While the federal guidelines are voluntary, this language makes them apparently mandatory in TN. Of course both Rep. Gary Odom and Sen. Roy Herron filed and argued for amendments to this language last month that would have clarified that the intent is to have the paper ballots rather than to focus on the 2005 standards. Unfortunately, the Secretary of State and Election Coordinator consider optical scanners that meet current standards in more than 30 states is going “backwards” and “weakening” from our currently unreliable DREs.
[...] Bernie Ellis ain’t buying it. [...]
[...] Tre Hargett Never Sends Us Press Releases About Laws He Won’t Comply With » LIBERADIO(!) writes July 7th, 2009 5:02 pm [...]