Tennessee one step closer to voter verifiable voting machines

Tennessee voting machines may get replaced

Under legislation that won initial committee approval Tuesday, all Tennessee voters will eventually mark paper ballots, check them for accuracy and then run them through an "optical scan" voting machine.

The bill, SB1363, has cleared the State and Local Government Committee in the Senate but will be held temporarily in the House Finance Committee until it is known whether Congress will provide funding for replacements. If not, the plan is to move ahead with state funding.

(Note that the article incorrectly states that "touch screen" systems are used in 93 of 95 Tennessee counties. Touch screens are only used in 17 counties in Tennessee. Two already use optical scan, and the rest use a different form of pushbutton DRE, or "direct recording electronic" voting machines.)

This is great news and long overdue. It should have been done at the federal level when Congress passed the HAVA "Help American Voting Machine Vendors" act. After waiting seven years for Congress to pass real reforms, states are tired of waiting and are taking matters into their own hands.

Florida has already banned touch screen voting machines, which they purchased after the 2000 election fiasco, and is replacing them with optical scan machines in time for the Nov. 2008 elections.

According to VerifiedVoting.org, other states around the South that have passed legislation requiring a voter-verified paper trail include Arkansas, North Carolina, and West Virginia. Legislation has been proposed in Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, and Virgina.

For more background, see our previous post about the TACIR report on Tennessee elections and voting systems

Labels: election reform, voting machines