Election Watch - Keep Elections Clean in Tennessee!!

[TornadoTN]

With the Senate race shaping up to be a very close affair - the thoughts of Florida and Ohio start to come to mind. We have already seen some problems across the state with the way county election commissions are setting up the elections and this opens the door for trickery and fraud. For example, here in Washington County and also in the surrounding counties of Sullivan and Greene counties, voter turnout was expected to be high for the August primaries, yet many polling places that once had 4 or 5 machines now have 1 or 2 to accomodate the same precincts. This led to long lines, long delays and an even more stressful environment for voters and poll workers alike. Even more nefarious was that election commissions seemingly placed a greater number of machines in Republican favored districts, while those with a more independent or Democratic lean were shorted. Proof of this was evident in the Republican primary for U.S. Congress - First District, where precincts that favored David Davis (who incidentally spent a great amount on polling prior to the election and is an ultra-right fundamentalist) had a plentiful supply of machines that reduced wait times considerably. Contrast that with those that favored Richard Vanable (who is a more moderate Republican), where people could expect to wait 2, 3, even 4 hours to vote. Venable was outraged for a few days but then went mysteriously silent on the issue, dismissing it entirely. Make no mistake - this made a difference in the outcome of this election. Venable barely missed the nomination by a matter of a small sum of votes.

I am asking all of you to volunteer as poll watchers and election overseers in your county. We need as many people out there watching the polls and reporting back to your local or state party headquarters on anything you find to be odd or out of place. Check with your local Democratic headquarters to see if they have a plan in place for election day and if they don't (they should), urge them or better yet volunteer to help organize this within the guidelines of the county election commission. Make phone calls TODAY to local election offices inquiring about how they plan to handle the turnout and if they are prepared with an adequate and fair number of machines in each precinct. Examine the ballots thoroughly! If using electronic machines, make sure that the ballots line up correctly in the machine and the corresponding push button is accurate. Let them know that there are people in our community that still care about Democracy and the right to a fair and clean vote.

The Republicans are worried about this seat that is for certain. We need to make sure that all of our angles are covered or Tennessee may be the next Ohio. The only thing that can stop this is for YOU to take action NOW!

[Flirtus]

1. We have early voting in Hamilton County

(but they moved my convenient downtown voting place. Where is it now?)

Anyway, vote early, drive someone else to vote every day. That's my plan.

[tnlefty]

2. Hey, Flirtus! You should still be able to vote early at the election

commission, Northgate Mall, Brainerd, but downtown the election commission office would probably be best! I usually do that, but in May I was working for a local candidate at the Brainerd precinct and I voted early there for the first time! The poll worker was actually shocked, though trying to recover and to hide it that someone from my precinct (address) would be requesting a democratic ballot. I giggled and mentioned quietly that "yes, we're out there, too."

[Flirtus]

4. Hey yourself! I live in Brainerd

but work downtown at two jobs. We're always surprized to see 'outsiders' in Brainerd, supposedly ya'll are just too skeered of the neighborhood that spawned both marty and ron. I don't know where the election commission moved to, I'm sure you do.

Did you see the other thread where bogus registrations are being turned in by a (R) operative in Davidson County? Any chance that's going on here?

[tnlefty]

5. Put me on the spot you did!

The Election Commission is on the corner of (4th and TN Ave. I think). It's the large intersection where one can turn onto the Veteran's Bridge (I always get those streets confused!) :blush:

BOXES of voter registrations turned up on Hwy. 58 the day of the election in '00, much too late for the people who thought they were registered to vote to do anything about it! So, yes this crap has been going on around here for quite some time. :mad:

Also, I did learn months ago from an African American older lady who attends the Dem Women's Club meetings that the city had changed the street names and numbers for a community in her area. I mentioned this to a male friend and I told him that this needed to be checked out (for many reasons including the reasons that this lady was so upset) and one of the things that I mentioned to him was the possibility that these folks would be disenfranchised come time to vote. He agreed that it seemed very fishy and that he would work to try to find out if these people had problems during the primary elections. We've talked about this since and considering the low turnout during the primaries we couldn't make a determination if any these folks had any problems voting.

I was at the Brainerd Recreation Center (next to Brainerd High School) and the turnout there was very, very low (May primary).

Dish it on Marty and Ron.

[Flirtus]

6. I'm slow on the response, but they leveled that building

doncha know. and so I looked it up

700 River Terminal Road 423-493-5100, long recorded message,
early voting info: Oct 18 - Nov 2, 2006.
I think they are off Amnicola Hwy. I just love it when they put public offices off the beaten path.

Downtown is covered up with CNN today. Pretty exciting. I saw lapel badges and bumper stickers for Ford, and ONE, countem one! little bumper sticker for that short guy. I even stayed off the shuttle and walked the whole way, just for the thrill!

[tnlefty]

9. When did the leveling of the building occur, and no, I did not know!

I was driving through that intersection not 2 more than 2 weeks ago and I didn't notice that the building was gone! Could've been that I'm just so used to seeing it there that I didn't notice! :blush: I did see a sign for the election commission on dAmnicola Hwy. and one of my kids mentioned it 'cause they've been to the other place with me before and the confusion set in.

Good job for your daughter working to get people registered to vote!!!!

Ford's campaign has established a satellite office on Brainerd Rd. and that will be much more convient than driving downtown for me.

[Flirtus]

7. and, did i tell you?

My daughter has been registering fellow UTC students to vote, and registered herself without me. All grown up she is.

[tnlefty]

10. Wow, we drove past the leveled election commission bldg. this afternoon!

I'm glad that you mentioned it because I had totally missed it!!! I just didn't pay attention to it a couple of weeks ago (feeling sheepish).

Thanks.

[tnlefty]

3. Yes, we've had our election problems before, no doubt!

I'm pretty sure that my precinct in covered with watchers, etc. I'll either be driving people to the polls to vote or trying to do a citizen's effort with polling after the vote, just to try to determine if any sort of recounts are needed. I think that our election commission is aware of the concern of voters about legit elections, and I'm not complacent by any means, but the election commission knows that there are folks in this county who are trying to hold their feet to the fire!

We're trying!!!

[Tippy]

8. TN Fair Vote

< http://tnfairvote.com/>

We have made several copies of thei flyer and are passing it out to people who come by our Headquarters...also added our Headquarters number at the bottom.....