LIBERADIO(!)

Tre Hargett: Counting your vote? Meh.

There’s only one reason why Tennessee Secretary of State* Tre Hargett is trying so hard not to implement the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA) by 2010 and today Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Chip Forrester called him out on it:

“The Secretary of State is using his office to obstruct the voting rights of all Tennesseans,” Forrester said. “Mr. Hargett’s refusal to do the job he was sworn to do appears to be part of a nefarious Republican strategy to stand in the way of secure and verifiable elections in Tennessee.

“We deserve better. Mr. Hargett needs to go. That’s why I’m calling on the General Assembly to remove him from office.”

…

“Mr. Hargett is hiding behind a weak legal opinion that is subject to wide interpretation. Legal scholars believe that the Secretary of State has the authority to move forward and implement the law as it stands now. I can come to no other conclusion: Mr. Hargett is willfully refusing to do his job. For the sake of a fair, honest and accurate election in 2010, he must be removed from office,” concluded Forrester.

Mr. Hargett’s rational is that the state cannot comply because the TVCA mandates that we buy machines certified to the Election Assistance Commission’s “applicable voluntary voting systems guidelines” of 2005.

As I wrote previously, the year 2005 is not mentioned in the TVCA nor is it mentioned in the referred to section of the Tennessee Code.