LIBERADIO(!)

Today at noon the State Senate will vote on HB0614, the bill to delay implementation of the TN Voter Confidence Act (TVCA) until 2012. You can watch the proceedings online at the Capitol website.

Here’s what’s wrong with the arguments you will hear for the delay:

1) There are no machines (or, alternatively, only one machine) that can be purchased that will meet the standards set forth by the TVCA.

A Davidson County Chancellor ruled without exception that, contrary to what Secretary of State Tre Hargett had been saying for well over a year, the TVCA does NOT require voting machines federally certified to 2005 standards. Machines certified to 2002 not only meet the requirements of the TVCA but are available in abundance. Also available in abundance, federal dollars that can be used by the state ONLY to pay for for these machines and other election-related materials.

The court’s ruling, which also said that the TVCA could and should have been implemented all along, came in October and yet, here we are today with no real progress and plenty of excuses.

Word on the street is that legislators are being told that there is only one machine out there that can meet the TVCA standards. Not true. And upgrading machines from 2002 standard to 2005 can be done quickly and easily with nothing more than a simple software “patch.”

2) Implementing the TVCA will an expense too costly for counties to bear.

Cost arguments – printing and storing ballots is expensive – are based on inflated cost estimates from the counties. Look no further than Hamilton and Pickett counties who have been using paper ballots and an optical scan counting system for years at a very manageable cost.

Last year, a spreadsheet detailing the “high” estimated costs for conducting a paper ballot election in Sumner County made the rounds. But another spreadsheet from the Secretary of State’s office shows enormous differences (pdf) in estimates for things like printing costs and ballot storage from other Tennessee counties.

For instance, the storage of ballots in Sumner County would cost $7,152.00. But Houston County estimates it would cost $50.00 and Cocke County estimates $203.00. Campbell County estimates that it would cost $70,000.

As of today, there has been no explanation for the disparity in the numbers. And while they contend that it would be more expensive to change to a system of paper ballots, studies in North Carolina, Maryland and Florida have shown that voting with paper ballots (counted by optical scan machines) is 30-40% less expensive than voting on paperless electronic voting machines like the ones we use now in Tennessee.

Two years AFTER the TVCA was passed almost unanimously in both the House and Senate, there are still no sufficient reasons to delay implementation in time for the November 2010 election.

Please, Tennessee Senators, vote against HB0614 and any delay of the TVCA today. Our fair and accurate elections depend on it.