The chaotic status concerning Nashville’s early voting less than two months out from a critical city election has stabilized after a compromise that seemed to start with a spreadsheet from a Metro Council member. Last week, the Davidson County Election Commission voted to shut down all but one early voting site without an additional $868,000 in additional funding from the Metro Council. It created an outcry that included Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell, Mayor Karl Dean and several of the seven candidates running for mayor. That’s when Bellevue-area Metro Council member Sheri Weiner stepped in late last week with her spreadsheet and some numbers that has satisfied both her fellow council members on the budget committee and the chair of the election commission.
“My goal was to truly find out how far we were apart,” Weiner told News 2 Tuesday, just hours before the council is expected to pass the mayor’s slightly tinkered with nearly $2 billion annual operating budget.
Starting with last year’s base budget of just over $4 million for the election commission, Weiner said the added up “wish list” of election commission staffers while “taking out last year’s elections, and adding in this year’s elections.”
Full Article: Council member’s spreadsheet appears to end Nashville’s early voting chaos | WKRN News 2.