So when I read yesterday that Secretary of State Tre Hargett was going to move forward with purchasing the optical scan machines needed to count the paper ballots that the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA) of 2008 mandates we use in November 2010, I was overcome with comfort and joy.

You see, those of use who have been urging implementation of the TVCA were elated when last month the protracted battle over implementation of the TVCA was put to rest and the Act, which was overwhelmingly supported by the people of Tennessee through their legislature, was now also fully validated by the courts.

It seemed, we believed, that Tennesseans were finally going to get the fair and accurate elections we deserve.

But then I read Jackson Baker’s Memphis Flyer article a little more closely and I realized, uh-oh, what we’re actually going to get is some post-holiday coal in our little red bootie stockings thingies.

FAIR AND ACCURATE. “I think we’ve got a 2005-quality machine,” Secretary of State Hargett said in a meeting in Memphis earlier this week, inferring that an optical scan machine made in any other year would be inadequate.

I’d like to clear up a few inaccuracies that Mr. Hargett’s chock-full one sentence statement infers.

First, the TVCA was passed to give us paper ballots, not voting machines. The paper ballots would not only record the voter’s intent but would also become the ballot of record in the case of a close election. In other words, the strength of the bill is in the paper ballot and not the machine that count the ballots. I mean, be good for goodness sake!, we could hand count the paper ballots in case of emergency and skip the machine counting process completely. Paper ballots are to optical scan machines as portable hard drives are to your computer.

To put it more simply, paper ballots give Tennesseans control over the results of our elections by giving us the ability to oversee, recount, and audit. In other words, trust but verify.

Mr. Baker followed up Mr. Hargett’s statement with an editorial comment, rife with inaccuracies: “‘I think we’ve got a 2005-quality machine,’ Hargett said in Memphis Tuesday night. Meaning that an optical-scan voting apparatus with paper-trail capability would soon be available in enough quantity to conduct statewide elections in 2010.”

The paper ballot – and the voters intent – gets counted by the optical scan machine. Or counted by hand if necessary. The optical scan machine does not produce a paper trail nor does it give the voter a receipt.

Again, the TVCA puts the emphasis on the paper ballot – not on the machines that count them – because Tennesseans prefer paper ballots that produce something tangible that they can oversee, recount, and audit. This is a much better system than the paperless electronic touch-screen voting machines we currently use that count votes using software that no one is allowed to see or monitor.

BI-PARTISAN. Accurate elections are the responsibility of the people of Tennessee, and the people of Tennessee want paper ballots. That’s why the TVCA was passed almost unanimously (when the hell does that ever happen?) in the General Assembly in 2008 – that means that 56 out of a possible 60 Republicans and 68 out of a possible 68 Democrats voted for the TVCA.

It truly was a bi-partisan effort.

The bill to delay the TVCA that Mr. Hargett mentions in the article is a divisive issue to be sure, and will most likely be brought to the Senate floor for a vote by Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey by January of 2010. This bill not only delays until 2012 the date the Act must be implemented, but also guts the mandatory audit procedures.

The audit procedures that would alert us to any problem with the vote count.

Again, Tennesseans want and deserve fair and accurate elections, but how can we make sure our elections are fair and accurate unless we are able to randomly audit the results?

FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE “The real question is if there are other costs required of the counties. We can purchase the machines, but that’s all we can do,” Mr. Hargett said, admitting that the state has approximately $34 million federal dollars available that can only be used by the state to purchase election equipment.”

In these uncertain economic times, all Tennesseans are focused on fiscal responsibility. But if our concern is saving money, the best thing we can do is implement the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act.

For example, with the TVCA only one Optical Scan machines is needed per precinct instead of the multiple machines needed with the paperless electronic touch screen voting system we use now.

And because we eliminate up to 80% of existing equipment when we move to paper ballots counted by optical scan machines, counties will save the money they now spend to program, service, test, store and transport so many unnecessary paperless electronic touch-screen machines.

In fact, studies in Florida, Maryland, and North Carolina have confirmed that voting with paper ballots counted by optical scan machines is 30-40% cheaper than voting the way we do now because of the reduction in programming, software, maintenance, storage and transportation costs.

We’re all hyper-aware that local budgets are strained and that necessary services run the risk of being cut. But fair and accurate elections are the most necessary of all our public structures. They are what gives life to all the others.

Look at it this way, your vote is your voice. And if your vote doesn’t get counted for the candidate who will vote with you on the issue or issues most important to you, then your participation in our democracy is an illusion.

All Tennesseans believe we deserve fair and accurate elections. The Tennessee Voter Confidence, aptly named, gives them to us.

A state law enabling citizens, which are authorized to carry handguns, to bring guns to city or county parks will take effect September 1 unless municipalities vote to opt out and ban guns from their city parks.

Thompson’s Station’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen [BOMA] will discuss the law passed by the state of Tennessee’s General Assembly during the August 11 meeting.

Spring Hill City Mayor Michael Dinwiddie said this item will be on the agenda this month for discussion.

“I’m a supporter of gun rights,” Dinwiddie said. “I believe we have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms. If it comes to a vote, I’m going to vote not to opt out.”

However, Spring Hill’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board voted in July to make a recommendation to the BOMA to opt out.

So on August 11 when BOMA convenes to discuss the new law, Mayor Dinwiddie will stand up to the people who might know a thing or two about what’s best for the parks and recreation areas of Spring Hill and Thompson’s Station. C’mon people, all we’re asking for is a little common sense. Guns and alcohol and guns and little league games do not mix. So give us our bars and our parks. You can carry everywhere else, we promise!

*Friend of Liberadio(!)

UPDATED & CORRECTED: The official calendar on the City of Spring Hill website shows the work session on August the 10th, and the regular meeting the following week on the 17th.

I am not worried about y’all having guns in restaurants or parks. Maybe the gun nuts have worn me down or just convinced me, I don’t know. But that’s the truth. I do not care. Go forth, be careful, and for gods’ sake, don’t shoot any innocent people.

Because, really, I think we are looking askew at this flurry of gun legislation that our legislators are trying to pass in a hurry.

First, Tennessee’s gun permit holders are allowed to pretty much carry anywhere except bars and parks (although the exceptions to this law are also liberal). So can’t we compromise on this? Let those who feel safer in places without guns – as opposed to those who feel safer in places with guns – have these two exceptions.

More importantly, though, is the attention our legislators are giving gun legislation this session. Again, in a state where gun laws are already permissive, why not put these non-emergency bills on hold until we address our failing schools, our out-of-control child mortality rate, and 10% (average for the state) unemployment?

For the past two radio shows, we’ve had some spirited discussions with our listeners about the guns in bars legislation and guns in general. Most people we spoke to – permit holders and non-permit holders – agreed with us that guns and alcohol don’t mix. But all the pro-gun and permit-holders we spoke to also agreed on something else – they are proud of Tennessee’s gun permit holders because they are responsible, law-abiding citizens.

Jeff Woods of the Nashville Scene has written about the exceptions to the above statement before – a lot – and today he ferrets out another:

Meet Timothy Tyndall. He’s been the proud possessor of a state-issued handgun carry permit for three years. Franklin police say they found him passed out drunk in his car in the Steak & Shake parking lot, a 9mm, semi-automatic Berretta lying next to him on the front seat along with several boxes of ammo, extra magazines and drug paraphernalia.

Tyndall apparently had been thinking about blowing up something because police say he revealed he had been experimenting with explosive chemicals. That sent the ATF and the FBI into action. Agents searched Tyndall’s storage unit in the Cool Springs area and found several 1-gallon containers of stuff, but luckily it apparently isn’t as dangerous as Tyndall imagined.

At the very least, if you’re pro-gun, it’d be swell if you can admit that not every permit-holder is a responsible, law-abiding citizen and take a good, hard look at all the gun legislation swirling around the General Assembly this year – especially the one that will hide from public view the names of permit holders in the state.

The Tennessee Firearms Association is seeking to publicly identify each law enforcement officer and prosecutor who attended Gov. Phil Bredesen’s veto of a bill to allow people with handgun carry permits to take their weapons into bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.

And now, Tennessee Gun Owners want to punish a small-business owner for operating his business the way he sees fit. Andy Feinstone, co-owner of Bosco’s (Nashville, Cool Springs, Memphis), posted signs in all his restaurants banning handguns, because, you know, it’s his business and he has that right and the freedom to make that choice. “I think it’s great that the governor vetoed it, and hopefully it doesn’t get overridden,” Feinstone told The Leaf Chronicle.

But “his business, his decision” is a tenant that doesn’t sit too well with the TGO organizers, who want to force Mr. Firestone to operate on their terms:

So I am curious. How many of you would participate in a lawful, peacful protest in front of the Hillsboro Village location of Boscos restaurant following the presumed Tennessee House & Senate override of Governor Bredesen’s veto?

…

The goals of this would be to:

* Put these restaurant owners on notice that not only will they lose our business as pro-personal protection consumers, but they will also have unwanted attention drawn to their practice.

* Inspire restaurant owners to reconsider their decisions and remove their individual ban on being able to protect ourselves while dining in their establishments.

* By dressing nicely, having intelligently worded signs and flyers, and conducting ourselves peacefully and with tact and decorum, show that gun owners are not all neanderthal redneck backwoods hicks as the media paints us so broadly.

In other words, you have the personal freedom to operate your business the way you wish until we don’t like what you’re doing. The Party of Personal Freedom? FAIL

In recognition of this basic principle of firearm safety, Tennessee state law has long prohibited the possession of firearms in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol. House Bill 962 would remove this protection in a manner that I, along with many law enforcement officers, believe to be reckless and lacking basic safeguards to ensure public safety. The notion that this bill would permit one to carry a concealed weapon into a crowded bar at midnight on a Saturday night defies common sense, and I cannot sign such a measure into law. As you consider this veto, I respectfully ask the legislature to rethink this issue.

We agree with Governor Bredesen. And despite what the TNGOP would have you believe, so do most Tennesseans, as we found out during our last show when we opened up the phone lines to talk about guns and guns in bars.

We spoke to a lawyer, a mother, a serviceman, and several citizens (one of who wonders out loud if he feels safer knowing that his Roane County representatives are packing heat) about it all – if there is a Constitutional right to be safe in your person, what specific rights are being taken away from gun owners (if any), does alcohol makes you less likely to follow the law, does the public have a right to know the names of gun permit holders, what is the responsibility of bar owners and bartenders and why didn’t anyone ask them what they think about guns in bars, and why do your second amendment rights stop at the door to Legislative Plaza? And not everyone was on the same page.

Listen to our discussion with our listeners on guns [download mp3 49.7MB 31:02].
Download audio file (liberadio20090518guns.mp3)

Despite the political machinations of certain Republican legislators and special interest groups who use hot-button issues to try and divide and conquer, we found out that Tennesseans who disagree can have a thoughtful and thorough discussions on issues like guns and find common ground and consensus. Too bad that’s not the goal of the TNGOP.