From Colby Sledge, brand spanking-new communications director for the Senate Democratic Caucus:
Tennessee Senate Democrats fought Republican legislation Tuesday that will delay secure elections and burden local governments.
Senate Republicans voted lockstep to pass legislation delaying the implementation of the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act until the 2012 elections. Under prior law, more secure voting machines and ballot procedures were to be used in the 2010 elections.
Tennessee currently uses the most insecure voting machines available, as determined by a New York University study.
“Citizens should know that when they go to vote, their vote is going to count,” said Sen. Roy Herron, D-Dresden. “There have been too many cases of fraud and computer problems with our current system.
“Today, we took a huge step backward.”
Herron introduced an amendment to the bill that would have helped counties purchase secure voting machines. The costs would have been covered by federal funds already set aside for improving ballot security and voter confidence under the Help America Vote Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002.
The amendment to help local taxpayers and voters was tabled 18-12 by Senate Republicans on a party-line vote.
“We tried to protect the taxpayer by taking the burden off counties, but Republicans voted it down,” said Sen. Eric Stewart, D-Belvidere.
The requirements will now go into effect for the 2012 elections, when, as the law is currently written, county governments will have to foot any costs not covered by the designated federal funds.
This is another reason I am voting more for Democratics because it looks more and more that it’s the Republicans you can’t trust. Their delay tactics are going to hurt this state when it comes to election time!
Sledge is wrong on one count. The Republican Senators did not vote in “lock-step”. Once again, Senator Tim Burchett voted to keep the Voter Confidence Act intact and on-track for 2010, the same position he has held consistently since 2008, unlike the other democracy-hating flip-floppers in his party. Senator Burchett continues to be the exception that proves the rule — that rule being that most Tennessee Republican legislators want to keep tamper-prone and unverifiable voting machines in place in Tennessee, for as long as possible. Once they “win” the 2010 elections in a statewide sweep that will once again befuddle and confound political scientists nationwide (just as their winning the legislature in 2008 for the first time since Reconstruction by taking every open seat was aslo befuddling and confounding), they will insure that we never have trustworthy elections in Tennessee.
It is clear that Senator Burchett marches to a different tune than his Republican Senate colleagues. From here, Burchett’s tune sounds to me like “the Star-Spangled Banner”. He should continue to enjoy all our respect, including the respect of his Senatr Democratic colleagues.
This is a breathtaking display by the Republicans. “Sorry, your safe and secure election has been cancelled due to lack of funding.”
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