Members of the Sumner County Commission recently voted to send a proposal to state legislators to either repeal or fund a bill currently being considered that mandates the use of paper ballots in local elections. “We just purchased new machines that are electronic, and if they mandate paper ballots we’ll have to go to a…
Mandating photo identification for voting is just one part of a reshaping of Tennessee election laws by the Legislature’s Republican majority that also includes resolution of a three-year dispute over installing new voting machines statewide. In a compromise last week, Republicans backed off of bills to repeal outright the Voter Confidence Act of 2008, which…
The Tennessee House of Representatives approved a bill Thursday that would require voters to show a photo ID at the polls. The passage came despite a state Attorney General’s opinion that the measure would likely be ruled a “poll tax” by a court The state attorney general’s opinion released this week that says the courts…
A proposal to require Tennessee voters to present a photo ID at their polling place ran into a speed bump at the state capitol Wednesday. Tennessee’s attorney general issued an opinion saying that the Voter ID bill would likely be found unconstitutional. Representative Craig Fitzhugh, the House Democratic Leader, was one of the lawmakers who…
Democratic legislators argued Tuesday that if Republicans are going to mandate a photo identification for voting, the state should provide free identification cards to those who cannot afford them. The argument did not work – at least for now -with the GOP majority on the House State and Local Government Committee, which proceeded to approve…
The state of Tennessee is supposed to move to using only paper ballots by the time voters head to the polls in 2012. But some lawmakers are looking to stop that, saying that communities just can’t afford to make the switch. The Tennessee Voter Confidence Act has already been delayed once, but it could be…
There were no comments while Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett presented a brief overview of his job — until he began talking about elections. After his speech Thursday in front of the Kiwanis Club of Cleveland, a member said the voting machines used in Tennessee do not have a recorded paper trail and could…