Bill To Establish Verifiable Paper Trail For TN Ballots Heads To Subcommittee

Photo Credit: State Representative Bruce Griffey – Facebook / LaLeBan – CC / Public Domain

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

A bill that is aimed at reestablishing trust in Tennessee Elections will be debated on March 9th, 2022 by the House Elections and Campaign Finance Subcommittee.

House Bill 2074 (HB2074) sponsored by Representative Bruce Griffey (R-Paris-District 75), in summary, requires county election commissions to use only ballot-marking devices or hand-marked ballots and tabulate the ballots using an electronic tabulator or by a hand count; specifies the distance from which a poll watcher may observe the counting and processing of ballots; requires certain security features on paper ballots.

“If people don’t have trust in our elections, then we have major problems,” Griffey said in an interview with The Tennessee Conservative.

Griffey’s bill seeks to establish a verifiable paper trail for every ballot cast in the Volunteer state, thereby alleviating concerns that election results could be tampered with digitally.

“If there ever is a dispute, people will be able to go in for a recount on physical paper ballots,” Griffey said, “The bill will allow for verification without going into a computer.”

The bill states that county election commissions shall not use voting machines or ballot marking  devices. Each county election commission shall use hand-marked paper ballots, which must then be counted using an optical ballot scanner. 

Further, the bill orders that the optical scanners used may not use proprietary software and that the software must be open to public inspection before and after any election.

The bill outlines that the coordinator of elections must prescribe security features that must be  used on the paper ballots. The security features may include watermarks, fluorescence, digital holograms, or any other technology that ensures the ballots cannot be duplicated.  The coordinator of elections may change the ballot security features from election to election.

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To provide even more security of the election process, the bill states that poll watchers may take video of the proceedings at polling places.

Griffey told the Tennessee Conservative that he hopes the bill will be passed and implemented in time for the 2022 elections, but doubts this will happen due to the new setups to accommodate the orders in the bill at Tennessee’s polling places.

Griffey stated that it is of the utmost importance that the bill’s orders are all implemented before the 2024 Presidential elections so Tennesseans can be assured their votes are counted properly without fear of tampering.  

In a call to action for Tennesseans, Griffey said, “I hope everybody will get behind it (HB2074) and get their Reps and Senators on board so we can have trust in our elections in Tennessee.”

HB2074 was originally placed on the calendar for the House Elections and Campaign Finance Subcommittee for March 2nd but action was deferred until Wednesday, March 9th.

If you support this bill, be sure to contact the Republican subcommittee members (who hold the supermajority vote) listed below to voice your support before their meeting on Wednesday.

House Elections and Campaign Finance Subcommittee Republican Members:

Tim Rudd (chair) – rep.tim.rudd@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-2804

John Crawford – rep.john.crawford@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-7623

John B. Holsclaw, Jr. – rep.john.holsclaw@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-7450

Eddie Mannis – rep.eddie.mannis@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-2287

Ryan Williams – rep.ryan.williams@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1875

Dave Wright – rep.dave.wright@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-6879

About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative  ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career.  Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others.  He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History.  Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com