Burned by close primary, Memphis lawmaker pitches reforms

NASHVILLE — Rep. Henri Brooks lost a state Senate primary race by just 20 votes last year.

But Tennessee has no provision for an automatic recount in close elections, so her only hope was to appeal to the state Democratic Executive Committee, which rejected her challenge.

Now Brooks, a Memphis Democrat, is drawing on her own experience to draft a series of election law reforms.

“All of these bills I experienced personally,” said Brooks, who lost to Ophelia Ford in the Democratic primary.

The House Elections Subcommittee approved three of Brooks’ bills last week, and three others are scheduled to be taken up this week.

The centerpiece of her package, the recount bill, would require all votes to be recounted if the margin between the top two candidates were within one-half of 1 percent of the total votes cast. Another deals with notifying voters of district changes.

Following the primary, Brooks said the election process was disrupted by a redrawing of district boundaries and a late change in polling locations.

She said she received numerous complaints from people confused by the 2002 redistricting, while others were thrown off by the election commission’s decision to move one polling site from an elementary school to a church.

One of the bills to be discussed this week would require the county election commission to notify all affected registered voters of any district or boundary changes.

The commission would do so by publishing notice in a newspaper and by mailing new registration cards to affected voters at least 30 days before the election.

“A lot of people didn’t know there was a special election,” Brooks said. “We’re trying to re-establish public trust.”

Eighteen other states already have an automatic recount process, with varying degrees of specificity, according to the National Conferences of State Legislatures.

Current Tennessee law authorizes a recount only in the following conditions:

–There’s a tie vote.

–An indication of fraud if the number of votes affected would be sufficient to change the result of the election.

–A malfunction of a voting machine or tabulator if the number of affected votes might change the election outcome.

–Any other instance the court or body with jurisdiction of a contested election finds that a recount is warranted.

Shortly after the Sept. 15 general election, Ford’s 13-vote win over her Republican challenger, Terry Roland, was disputed because of voting irregularities. Roland and his supporters have said as many as 150 votes were improper, including ballots cast in the names of voters who were dead.

Election officials recently reported that three more voting felons pushes the total number of improper votes to 12 — one shy of the 13-vote margin.

A Senate committee investigating the special election voted last month to void nine votes, including some cast on behalf of dead voters, felons and nonresidents.

Ford, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the disputed election, voted against the Senate version of Brooks’ recount bill and refused to comment about the legislation.

But Sen. Mike Williams, chairman of the committee probing the special election, did vote for the bill and agrees it restores integrity.

“I think it sends a clear message that we want to ensure that all the elections are valid,” said the Maynardville Republican.

Tennessee Election Coordinator Brook Thompson had a neutral stance on the proposed election legislation. If passed, the bills would drastically change the state’s current system, he said.

Besides recounts, which Thompson says are rare in Tennessee, he pointed to another bill approved by the House Elections Subcommittee that would require counties to create a pool of poll workers to choose from for each specific election job description.

“That is a radical change from the way we appoint poll workers now,” Thompson said. “They are appointed by the county election commission in a specific precinct that they live in. This bill would allow people to work in precincts that they don’t live in.”

Proposed election reform bills
Here are the bills in the “Voter Integrity Legislation” package sponsored by Rep. Henri Brooks, D-Memphis, and Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro:

HB2518/SB2585 — Provides for an automatic recount of all votes cast in any election in which the voter margin separating the top two candidates is within one-half of 1 percent of the total votes cast in the election.

HB2897/SB2910 — Requires the county election commission to publish a notice of a special election in the general newspaper and at least one alternative or ethnic newspaper and notify all voters about a special election by mail 20 days prior to the election. Specifies that the county election commission must show proof of the notices to the challenger, publish a list of every precinct within the district, and hold in escrow enough money to cover minimum media advertising for 10 days prior to the special election if it is to be held in an area with more than 100,000 eligible voters.

HB2898/SB2908 — Excludes areas with more than 100,000 voters from the existing election official appointments. Specifies that such areas establish a pool of persons willing to serve as randomly assigned election officials that will be trained specifically regarding their assigned election role.

HB2899/SB2915 — Allows the state primary board to delay a special election in order to hear and investigate a properly filed complaint.

HB2900/SB2907 — Requires the county election commissions of every metropolitan area having more than 100,000 registered to provide job training for election officials. Prohibits any person from performing duties in a polling place on election day unless such person has completed such job training.

HB2901/SB2911 — Requires the county election commission to notify all affected registered voters of any district or boundary changes. Specifies that the county election commission publish such changes in the general newspaper and mail voters whose residence is now in a different district a new voter registration card at least 30 prior to the following election.

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On the Net:

See HB2518/SB2585; HB2897/SB2910; HB2898/SB2908; HB2899/SB2915/ HB2900/SB2907; HB2901/SB2911 at Tennessee Legislature: http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/

Source: Tennessee Legislative Service