Reader Blayne directed our attention to an article up at Clarksville Online, the voice of Clarksville, written by Joyce McCloy of NC Coalition for Verified Voting and Voting News Blog.
In the article Joyce writes that a “A perfect storm is brewing for Tennessee voters for the 2010 election:”
Tennessee is set up for an election debacle, thanks to the states’ reliance on paperless electronic voting. Currently 93 out of 95 counties in Tennessee use these machines.
Unless the Secretary of State Hargett takes swift and certain prompt action, thousands of votes will be at risk in the 2010 election. Computer scientists agree that any electronic voting machine can fail without warning. SOS Hargett should pay attention to the lessons learned by other states.
North Carolina found out the hard way that paperless voting machines can lose thousands of votes. In the November 2004 Presidential Election, 4,400 votes were permanently lost by “state of the art†computerized voting machines. The AP described that election as “A Florida-style nightmare …with thousands of votes missing and the outcome of two statewide races still up in the air.†On top of that, the outcome of one statewide election contest was too close to call. There would have been a $3 million dollar “do-over†election if one of the candidates hadn’t voluntarily withdrawn. (See North Carolina Ballot Blues)
So why take a chance? Tennessee has time to act now and protect the 2010 election from mishaps. North Carolina adopted a paper ballot law in August 2005 and had new voting machines running an election in April 2006. Thanks to these paper ballot optical scan machines, North Carolina saw a our undervote rate for President cut in half in the 2008 election. (An undervote occurs when for some reason a ballot is cast but no vote is registered for the candidate.)
Tennessee, she also writes, “already has warning signs of an election meltdown to come,” and she chronicles a list of problems during previous elections in Davidson, Knox, Williamson, Hawkins, Shelby, and Sullivan counties.
In addition, there is a video of statements by voters in Carteret County, North Carolina who lost their votes on a paperless machine in the November, 2004 election.
Finally, Joyce provides example of several states that have enacted paper ballot laws successfully and asks that all Tennesseans Contact Secretary of State Tre Hargett by email at tre.hargett@tn.gov or by phone at (615) 741-2819 to demand he implement the Voter Confidence Act and paper ballots by the 2010 election.
