Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s office posted a Q&A about the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA), a bill passed almost unanimously last year by the House and Senate and signed into law by Gov. Phil Bredesen.TVCA requires the use of paper ballots in the 2010 elections across the entire state, but key legislators are seeking a delay in implementing the law.

Below are questions and answers of interest from the Secretary’s office (underline added by NIT). None of the responses answer the question asked of the Secretary’s office yesterday: what has been done by the Secretary of State’s office to implement the law in the months since it was enacted, including any actions taken to address their office’s professed concerns with existing law?

State Election Coordinator Mark Goins and Secretary of State Tre Hargett were in Memphis yesterday speaking to the Tennessee Association of County Election Officials (TACEO) where Goins said his office will do their best to implement the new law, but spent most of the time detailing problems his office has with the law and advocating those in attendance call their lawmakers and urge them to delay the implementation.

What is the Tennessee Department of State’s position on the Voter Confidence Act?
The Department of State is committed to helping counties implement the act. There are, however, significant financial and logistical hurdles that counties will have to overcome in order to meet the 2010 deadline.

What’s the advantage in switching to optical scan machines?
Supporters believe the machines make it easier to conduct recounts and verify election results.

Who pays for the optical scan equipment?
The state will pay the cost of purchasing the machines. However, county governments will be responsible for other costs associated with the act, such as ballot printing, ballot storage and election worker training.

What are some of the hurdles to meeting the implementation deadline?
Cost is obviously one, during an economic climate in which many local governments are struggling financially. However, a much bigger issue is the lack of availability of the equipment. The act requires counties to use equipment that meets the security and reliability standards adopted by the federal Election Assistance Commission in 2005. Currently, there are no vendors who sell equipment that meets those standards – in Tennessee or elsewhere in the country. Additionally, the commission’s certification process is very thorough, so it appears there is insufficient time for a vendor to complete that process and become certified before the 2010 deadline.

So what are the alternatives then?
One would be for the General Assembly to lower the security and reliability standards for the equipment. Another would be to delay implementation of the Voter Confidence Act until 2012.

Isn’t supporting a delay just a way of killing the act?
Not at all. Anything worth doing is worth doing right. And it makes more sense to take the time necessary to get the best quality equipment rather than settle for equipment that’s less reliable and less secure.

UPDATE 11:21am: Secretary of State Spokesperson Blake Fontenay said via email to NIT that the Division of Elections conducted a training seminar the first week of June for election officials throughout the state, and “the purpose of the training seminar earlier this month was to teach election administrators how to conduct elections using paper ballots, in compliance with the TVCA.”

Liberadio:

So why did the Secretary of State’s office spend 6 months trying to delay the implementation of the TNVCA when all it had to do was amend the law to include the ability to purchase machines certified to the EAC’s 2002 standards?

More importantly, the answer to this question puts the emphasis of the TNVCA on the wrong element - the machines. The emphasis of the TNVCA has always been on the PAPER BALLOTS, not the machines. We are moving to paper ballots because machines cannot always be trusted to perform correctly - no matter what standards they are certified to.