Tennessee counties hurry to meet new voting legislation deadline
August 20, 2009
Tennessee: All 95 counties in the state of Tennessee are required to meet standards set down by the Election Assistance Commission in 2005 by November 2010. The new standards would require that counties use paper ballots with optical scan voting machines. Also, known as the 2008 Tennessee Voter Confidence Act was adopted by the Nevada Legislature in 2008.[1] Currently, 93 out of 95 counties in Tennessee paperless electronic voting machines.[2] However, not all counties are finding it easy to make the change. Sullivan County Election Commission Chairman James Holmes said, "The law as it stands today is unworkable," because according to county officials the new "certified optical scan voting machines" are not easy to find.[3] Adding to the difficulty of adopting the new legislation, counties' officials said the cost will be a lot for counties to take on. The state is expected to spend about $6 to $10 million to replace and update county equipment, however additional cost like printing and storage will fall to the states. The additional cost is expected to be about $24,000 per election year.[1]
See also
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* Tennessee 2009 local ballot measures
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Valley Beautiful Beacon, "New voting legislation puts county in ‘Catch-22’," August 11, 2009
- ↑ Clarksville Online, "Prevent Election Fiascoes in Tennessee – Enact Paper Ballot Law Now," August 11, 2009
- ↑ Times News, "Sullivan to seek attorney general's opinion on voting machine deadline," August 11, 2009 (dead link)
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