According to a press release sent out today by the EAC, there are now three optical-scan voting systems that are certified to 2005 standards.

2) “Which the bill we passed in ‘02 [It was actually passed in '08 - ed.] requires.”

A Davidson County Chancellor ruled without exception that 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.

3) “Unfortunately, they [EAC] inform us, only one machine may be certified in time for this election cycle coming up in November 2010.”

Hello, today’s press release from the EAC.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) today certified the OpenElect 1.0 voting system by Unisyn Voting Solutions, an optical-scan device with central count and precinct-level count equipment, to the 2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. It is the fourth voting system to achieve federal certification under the EAC Voting System Testing and Certification Program.

…

EAC certified its first voting system, a direct recording electronic (DRE) device called the MicroVote EMS 4.0, early last year. Last summer it certified the ES&S Unity 3.2.0.0 optical-scan system and the Premier Assure 1.2 with optical-scan and DRE technology.

If I were one of the 60 county election administrators that were in the Senate chamber yesterday to support Senator Ketron’s delay bill, I would feel cheated. Ditto for the other Senators who voted for his bill, many of whom told their constituents that they would vote for the delay bill precisely because there were no certified machines available.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) today certified the OpenElect 1.0 voting system by Unisyn Voting Solutions, an optical-scan device with central count and precinct-level count equipment, to the 2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. It is the fourth voting system to achieve federal certification under the EAC Voting System Testing and Certification Program.

An EAC certification means that a voting system has met the requirements of the federal guidelines by passing a series of comprehensive tests conducted by a federally-accredited test laboratory. Manufacturers of certified systems must also meet technical and ethical standards that ensure the integrity of the process and the system as it goes from the test lab to production and into the marketplace.

…

EAC certified its first voting system, a direct recording electronic (DRE) device called the MicroVote EMS 4.0, early last year. Last summer it certified the ES&S Unity 3.2.0.0 optical-scan system and the Premier Assure 1.2 with optical-scan and DRE technology.

So the question now becomes, who was releasing misinformation to our State Representatives and today’s latest certification the reason why the delay bill was rammed through so quickly?

*Not that the machines we purchased had to be certified to the 2005 standards. 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. Just sayin’.

Add “Us hate truth” and “Us love screwing with the democratic process” to that code and we have the motivation for Bizarro Secretary of State Tre Hargett to award Bizarro State Senator Bill Ketron (R, Murfreesboro) the 2008-09 National Association of Secretaries of State Medallion Award for, as the Rutherford County Dems put it, “all his legislative effort to delay the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act and to kill the state’s Ethics Comission [sic].”

“I am honored to present the NASS Medallion Award to Sen. Ketron for his work in pursuing the highest standards of integrity in the electoral process as well as his work to protect the fiscal stability of local governments,” says Mr. Hargett.

Wow. How bizarre. During the legislative session we had here on earth (not-Bizarro world?, reality-based community?), Senator Ketron not-pursued “the highest standards of integrity in the election process.” Here on earth, he sponsored three election-related bills that would disenfranchise Tennessee voters.

First, he carried the bill that would delay until 2012 the replacement of the unsecure and unverifiable electronic voting machines we use now in 93 out of 95 counties with paper ballots.

He also sponsored the photo ID to vote and proof of citizenship to register bills that were both solutions in search of problems.

Secretary of State Hargett learned a lot about Bizarro World politics from 8 years of the Bush Administration, but so have the people of Tennessee. We especially learned, from bizarro-world titles like the “Clear Skies Initiative” and “No Child Left Behind,” that just because you give it a flowery name doesn’t mean it smells pretty.

H/T: Joke of the Day from Woods at Pith

“As written, Sen. Ketron’s bill would allow a licensed distillery to operate a still of any size within zoning guidelines. That would include a very small “craft” still. Brown-Forman could easily have their $10 million museum in association with a small “craft” distillery through Sen. Ketron’s new bill without all the fuss of paying lobbyists and drawing attention to a previous failed effort.

On April 23 we reported that Rep. Joe Carr announced his intention to help the two IASIS attorneys bring a liquor distillery to Rutherford County. When asked who these people were by his colleagues, Rep. Carr had no idea but assured the House they were not contributors to his campaign. You can watch the embarrassing exchange in this video.

The reason Rep. Carr had no idea who his bill was for is now clear thanks to an article in Daily News Journal. Rep. Carr’s bill wasn’t by request of any voter in his district. It was requested by Sen. Ketron who asked Rep. Carr to sponsor a House version, and Rep. Carr did it without asking important questions or doing his homework.

The voters of Rutherford County deserve to know more about who is really behind Sen. Ketron and Rep. Carr’s effort to bring a liquor manufacturer to Rutherford County. What does IASIS think about their moonlighting attorney’s seeking this legislation?”

Wait, wait. And Rep. Curry Todd (R-Collierville) is pushing a bill that would make it easier to obtain an absentee ballot with just a scanned signature, no photo ID required?

Number of murders committed recently in Tennessee by gun permit holders: 3
Number of cases of voter fraud committed in Tennessee by registered voters: 0*

BTW, Florida Republicans are taking the Sunshine state down a slippery slope since they passed a photo ID law. Their latest photo ID law places even more restrictions on the elderly stating that they can no longer use photo IDs issued by retirement homes.**

*What happened in Memphis was “election fraud,” systematic and systemic disenfranchisement by those working within the system, i.e. poll workers, election officials, elected officials, etc. (you know, the people that would be responsible for checking photo IDs and making election laws.)

**A good example of election fraud.

In last week’s meeting they discussed Senator Ketron’s other voter suppression bill that would require photo IDs to vote (SB150) – except of course if you swear that you’re poor or have a “religious exception” to being photographed. Surprisingly, an exchange with Senator Thelma Harper (D-Nashville, the fightin’ 19th!) shows what Senator Ketron really believes – that we should simply “trust” those who require the exception in the case of the photo ID:

Senator Harper: So what is it they’re going to say?

Senator Ketron: “They’re gonna say they object to furnishing a photo ID based on their religion. Now for me to question what their religion is…I…

Senator Harper: I guess the concern that I have is that we want people to register to vote and we want the legitimacy there. But we’re putting an awful lot of stumbling blocks in folks way in order for them to register to vote, change their voter registration, just to move from other states and cities here to register to vote. I just wonder if this is really poppycock and we’re just curtailing the number of people who attempt to vote. I think we should be removing barriers rather than placing barriers in their way.

Senator Ketron: Senator, by them signing it, they signed the affidavit under oath that they are saying who they say they are.

So the question remains, why does Senator Ketron implicitly trust those who claim indigency or religious exemption and not the rest of us? Every time we vote we sign a sworn statement that we are who we say we are so aren’t we setting up an unequal system if some are allowed to continue do this and others aren’t?

Senator Ketron’s latest is SB1999, would require proof of citizenship status prior to registering to vote. Again, we already swear to this – under penalty of law – so why the extra added protection? Do we have an inordinate number of non-citizens clamoring to vote that we – or more importantly, the law – doesn’t know about?

The answer is no. But we do have proof that photo ID laws et. al. disenfranchise legitimate voters. So we can only hope that tomorrow Senators Harper, Haynes, and Finney request actual documentation of voter fraud by non-citizens as Rep. Harry Tindell (D-Knoxville, the fightin’ 13th!) did of Rep. Todd’s companion bill last week:

Senator Haynes: Senator Ketron, I know that what you’re doing is well-meaning, and I respect that. But this is something that bothers me greatly because there are people in the world that don’t have driver’s license, don’t have photo ID. There are people in the world who are 65 and older that have a driver’s license without a photo ID on it. There’s a class of peple who are not indigent but yet don’t have a photo ID. And to those people, your bill excludes them from voting in our state. I consider that enough of a problem that I would challenge you..and we do this a lot when we see there are legitimate questions that we have….we try and take public testimony and we try to study it. There’s not another election until next next year. I don’t see what harm would be done if we took some public testimony. And we studied this to try an see what we could do to improve it and work on it and come back next year and try to adopt a system that’s workable. I think you’ve done a good job of trying to patch this up and I respect you for it..but I’m greatly concerned about people that fall in the categories I just described…because what you are doing is either 1) you’re forcing somebody to lie that says in their affidavit of identity that they have a relgiosu objection or that they are indigent and nobody is going to go out and check if they are indiegent there not going to be any system for that – that would be so burdensome that there would be no way to work it out of an election commission office…I’m going to ask you if you would consider putting this in a study committee so we could look at this properly…would you consider that, Senator Ketron?

Senator Bill Ketron says, “Thanks, but no thanks”:

Sentor Ketron: *Big sigh* No, Senator Haynes, I won’t. You know, in 2007, the full Senate passed this and in 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled – it was upheld in Marion Country v. Indiana – that it is constitutional..currently there are seven states that require photo IDs…all of those require photo ID. We have seven different opportunities – Tennessee driver’s license photo ID issued by Tennessee and other states in the U.S., photo ID issued by the Tennessee Department of Safety, a U.S. passport, employee ID issued by Tennessee…U.S. military ID. In 2013 the Real ID act goes into effect and my attempt here is to protect and purify the ballot. That is one of the only things we have in this country today is the ability to vote and that can’t be taken away from you unless you go to prison. So, um, I feel very strongly about that for any person who cheats and votes a convicted felon or a dead person and takes away the right of me or you or anyone else who votes you have been disenfranchised by that person voting…so that’s my purpose of bringing the bill.

Senator Haynes: You are taking away a certain class of people’s right to vote when you pass this legislation. Until everybody has an ID, required either by this bill or some bill or some national legislation you gonna find people that are going to be excluded from voting because they don’t have a voter [photo] ID…and I think that flies in the face of what you just said, Senator Ketron, that is that you don’t want to take away anybody’s right to vote…

Senator Haynes attempts to salvage his own franchise, and with it, our participatory democracy:

Senator Mike Faulk (R-Kingsport): I’ve heard comments between…there are large numbers of people vs. there are some people that fall into the category that Senator Haynes describes, that is, over 65, not indigent, but no photo ID. I feel like we’re speculating and guessing does anyone know, do we have any information, any statistical data on how many folks fall into that category.

Senator Haynes: Senator Faulk in response to that, if it’s one person, it’s one person too many. If it’s one person, it’s one person too many. And if you want to come over and check my driver’s license, I happen to be 65 or older – I know I probably don’t look it…you’re out of order – but I don’t have a photo ID. I don’t have a photo on my driver’s license. because I was in a hurry that day and I knew I didn’t have to have a photo and I didn’t get one and I checked that..and got it without one. So, if I go in I can’t get a photo ID. I’d have to go back and reapply for my driver’s license. So you’re going to force everyone to get a photo ID.

An exchange between Senator Thelma Harper (D-Nashville) and election coordinator Mark Goins addresses the process for notification of voters of the new system. Mr. Goins said they would do everything they could to get the word out. For free – since doing it any other way would add another fiscal note. And I’m sure they will. Except when, you know, they don’t.

Seriously worth the click to embiggen.

This Tomorrow morning at 8:30 am, the Senate State & Local Government Committee will hear SB150 by Senator Bill Ketron (the companion bill is HB0639 by Rep. Debra Maggart) which would require voter to show “qualified photographic identification” before being allowed to vote.

When last we left our bill, Senator Lowe Finney’s (D-Jackson, the Fightin’ 27th!) asked the sponsor, Senator Ketron (R-Murfreesboro), if there had “been any other instances of ‘voter fraud’ in the state of Tennessee?” Senator Ketron said he would get back to him on that. Tune in tomorrow morning for the thrilling conclusion!

While on the surface this bill may seem like a good idea, it is really a solution in search of a problem and will actually do more to disenfranchise voters than maintain the integrity of our elections.

Photo ID laws are the modern day equivalent of a poll tax – The expenses involved in obtaining a photo ID card will prevent some individuals from voting. While the bills include language to allow individuals to file paupers’ oaths and accompanying affidavits of indigency to waive costs, it could be uncomfortable and even humiliating to request the waiver. In addition, it is unclear how the information about the exemption will be shared and it is more likely that individuals will not go to the polls because they do not have a photo ID card.

There is no credible evidence that photo ID laws prevent fraud – The Brennan Center of Justice has studied the issue of voter fraud extensively and have concluded that someone is more likely to be hit by lightning than commit voter fraud. They also analyzed the more than 250 claims of fraud in the Supreme Court’s photo ID case and found that there was “not one proven case of a fraudulent vote that the challenged law could prevent.”

Restrictive photo ID cards disenfranchise legitimate voters – Bills like these have the potential of disenfranchise between 13 and 22 million people in the United States who do not have a photo id. A disproportionately large number of these are minorities, seniors and limited-income and disabled persons. Examples of disenfranchisement of the elderly, and poor, elderly nuns in other states who have these laws is well documented.

We should be making it easier, not harder, for people to vote – Nothing is more fundamental to our democracy than the right to vote. But bills like this one restrict, not increase, access to the voting booth. So, don’t be a voter hater. Rather than preventing Tennesseans from voting, why not ensure that every eligible voter is allowed to vote, and that every vote counts?

Please email the members of the Senate State & Local Government Committee ASAP and urge them to oppose SB150: Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro, the fightin’ 13th), Chair, Lowe Finney (D-Jackson), Vice Chair, Joe Haynes (D-Goodlettsville), Secretary, Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville), Mike Faulk (R-Church Hill), Thelma Harper (D-Nashville), Mark Norris (R-Collierville), Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville), Ken Yager (R-Harriman).

Excuse me, sir, did you show your photo ID before you got that purple finger?

These eight bills were all introduced by Republicans – the Party of preventing the vote – in an effort to fulfill Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey’s post-election day promise to give “new life” to certain issues including “‘pro-business issues’, 2nd Amendment issues, abortion issues, and illegal immigration issues… voter ID specifically and SJR 127.”

SB0150 and SB1681 by Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro), as well as SB0587 by Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet) and SB0191 by Dewayne Bunch (R-Cleveland) would make showing”qualified photographic identification” at the polls before voting mandatory. SB0173 and SB0886 by Senator Ketron, and SB0194 by Senator Bunch “requires citizenship status to be proven prior to registration to vote and requires certain procedures to ensure identity and citizenship status prior to voting.”

While on the surface these bills may seem like a good idea, they are really a solution in search of a problem and will actually do more to disenfranchise voters than maintain the integrity of our elections.

The Brennan Center of Justice has studied the issue of voter fraud extensively and have concluded that someone is more likely to be hit by lightning than commit voter fraud. They also analyzed the more than 250 claims of fraud in the Supreme Court’s photo ID case and found that there was “not one proven case of a fraudulent vote that the challenged law could prevent.”

In 2007, the Election Assistance Commission, the federal panel responsible for conducting election research, altered their findings so they could report that “the pervasiveness of fraud was open to debate.”

From October 2002 to September 2005, the Justice Department indicted only 40 voters for registration fraud or illegal voting, 21 of whom were noncitizens and during the same time period, only 95 defendants were charged with federal election-fraud-related crimes in the whole country.

Remember the U.S. Attorney General scandal? All because the justice department tried to force State AG’s into ferreting out non-existent cases of voter fraud.

And take Texas’ Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott who “declared war on what he claimed was rampant vote fraud in Texas” and “set up a special vote fraud unit and got a $1.4 million grant from the feds for the work.” That was in 2006. In 2008, the Dallas Morning News reported on the results of his efforts – 26 cases, all involving Democrats, and almost all involving minorities.

Even the federal court of appeals judge who wrote the majority decision upholding an Indiana voter identification law enacted in 2005 said, “As far as anyone knows…no one in Indiana, and not many people elsewhere, are known to have been prosecuted for impersonating a registered voter.”

Between 13 and 22 million people in the United States do not have a photo id. A disproportionately large number of them are elderly and in poverty. These bills have the potential of disenfranchising thousands of people in this state alone.

It’s already happened to the poor, the elderly, and the poor, elderly nuns in other states.

Members of the Senate State and Local Government Committee:

Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro, the fightin’ 13th), Chair, Lowe Finney (D-Jackson), Vice Chair, Joe Haynes (D-Goodlettsville), Secretary, Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville), Mike Faulk (R-Church Hill), Thelma Harper (D-Nashville), Mark Norris (R-Collierville), Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville), Ken Yager (R-Harriman)

Please call and email to tell them to just say no to these bills.

UPDATE: Goldni asks a great question over at a Kleinheider joint. Will the act of obtaining a photo create even more barriers:

Here’s an honest question–I would guess that most people do not register to vote at a central office, at an election commission or DMV. In election years, voter registration is often done by campaign volunteers, who distribute the forms and then mail them to the election commission. It’s convenient for voters to be able to register on the spot. Does this mean that voter registration will now have to be done in only a few locations so that pictures can be made?

That’s where I’m worried about the suppression, not so much the monetary cost. It makes it more difficult to register to vote, if there are only a few places to do so.