LIBERADIO(!)

Tomorrow’s Senate State and Local Government Committee will also hear SB0872 by Senator Ketron (*HB 0614 by *Todd) which would gut the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (paper ballots, purchase of precinct- based optical scanner voting machines, mandatory hand count audits of paper ballots).

Odds are that this bill will be disposed of in place of one that will delay implementation of the bill until 2012, which is frustrating on a number of levels.

First, the original Voter Confidence Act was crafted for implementation in 2008. But then-Secretary of State Riley Darnell and Election Coordinator Brook Thompson said they couldn’t get it done by then. So, a compromise was reached for 2010. The bill for 2010 sailed though both houses (unanimously in the Senate and by an overwhelming majority – 96 to 3 – in the House) and the Governor happily signed it into law. We’ve already compromised once. Why do we need to again?

Second, what the hell was Mr. Darnell and Mr. Thompson doing for the past year? Because now we’re being asked, once again, to postpone our best chance – outside of hand counted paper ballots – of having secure and verifiable elections again because the current Secretary of State, Tre Hargett, and Election Coordinator, Mark Goins, say that 18 months is not enough time to obey the law.

Third, I’ve heard all the reasons why they say we must postpone and they are simply not satisfactory.

Last week during the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act Study Committee Democratic members of the General Assembly dispensed with some of them…and activists with the rest.

First, Rep. Gary Moore on fuzzy math and the “We have no place to store the paper ballots” excuse:

Rep. Moore: Right…but, again…I’ve looked at these numbers and I’m not going to get into an argument with you but these numbers are erroneous numbers because you’re assuming it don’t cost anything to store that other equipment…the DREs have to be stored somewhere now, do they not?

Wayne Pruitt: Yes, sir.

Rep. Moore: And they have to be stored in a secure place, do they not?

Wayne Pruitt: We take the most secure place available to us.

Rep. Moore: That’s what I thought. But does it show what it costs to do that? Does it show that cost? What I’m getting at, I don’t mind these numbers here if you say it costs an additional amount to hold an election – but this is what it costs to hold an election under the paper ballot scenario. What does it cost to hold an election under the DRE scenario? And then you put the two side by side and see what any additional costs would be. I think that would be a true, fair assessment. Thank you.

Next, Senator Roy Herron on “we don’t have enough time and/or money; we don’t have machines that qualify; we should wait until the feds butt in:”

Senator Roy Herron: Mr. Goins, what I’m wanting to do, that we can be as certain as human beings can be are legitimate, honest and fair. That is my number one goal…and if it costs a little bit, I understand that. I’d rather pay less than more but my real goal, my number one goal, is that when you’re talking about elections and the very basis for this republic to operate in this state to select its elected officials that’s worthy of some investment. Now, whatever mistakes have been made in the past, I can’t do anything about. Whatever the federal government may do in the future, I can’t do anything about. What I can do, I think, is to ask people I trust and respect like you and the Secretary of State, is to give us the recommendation on something that can give us a fair degree of certitude that the elections will be fair, honest and right. And we can know that when people cast their ballot it will be recorded accurately. That’s what I’m asking for. What I’m hearing from you, just to be clear, is you can’t get it done in 18 months, and you don’t know if there’s any standards that would work, and you’re not sure there’s any state that sets a good model. If that’s not what you’re saying you need to tell me the opposite of those three things, now or later, because that’s what I’m taking from you.

You know, this is why folks get frustrated with government. I understand that frustration but for you to tell me in 18 months “we can’t it done,” “woe is me,” “there’s no standard,” “there’s no state,” “I’m not man enough to get this done.” Now, surely that’s not what you’re telling me. You’ve got too much ability. I know the Secretary of State has too much ability because I worked with him too much to think otherwise to think that in 18 months we can’t figure out a way to get it done. Now whether we should have stimulus money or we shouldn’t, there is some one-time money around. And there ought to be some funds that we can put in this. And I don’t know anything more important to invest in than this democracy.

Finally, concerned citizens who have been eating and breathing election stats dispensed with the numbers:

Bernie Ellis, Gathering to Save Our Democracy: “We think, and I’ve shared this with the committee, and I’ll end with this point, rather than speculating on what the costs are, which again is really all the counties can do at this point, if you look at states like Florida and North Carolina who have gone through this process before us and have had enough counties who have used both systems so they can compare apples to apples, in Florida, the counties that went to DREs spent six times more money than the counties that went to OpScan [optical scan]. In North Carolina, over a six year period counties that used OpScan actual election expenses not estimated expenses but actual expenses that were 35-40% lower then counties using DREs. Those aren’t guesstimates, those are hard figures from comparable counties. If our concern – and I’ll finish with this – if our concern is saving money, and it should be, uh, a secondary concern to having an election process we can trust, but if it’s a concern, the best thing you can do for counties is implement OpScan by 2010. They’ll save 35-40% of their operating costs if they move that way and again if you have questions we can share with you why there is such a difference in cost.”

Tomorrow’s hearing of the Senate State and Local Government Committee is in Legislative Plaza Room 12 at 8:00 am.