“Human Error” To Blame For Wrong Ballots Given To Davidson County Voters

Image Credit: capitol.tn.gov

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

In a report issued on Friday by Tennessee Election Coordinator Mark Goins, a combination of human error and failure to ensure districting changes were made correctly were cited as reasons for 437 voters in Davidson County casting incorrect ballots in the Midterm elections in November.

The Davidson County Election Commission (DCEC) reported 489,944 registered voters as of Election Day for the November 8, 2022 election. During the early voting period for the state and federal general election, some Davidson County voters were identified as having been assigned to incorrect districts. As a result of these misassignments, DCEC staff reported more than 3,000 voters were assigned to one or more of the incorrect districts.

However, the report states that none of the errors were extreme enough to affect the outcome of the races where the erroneous ballots were cast.

Goins’ review states that changes made by the DCEC staff to the street file used to assign districts were the primary cause of the errors. Due to these changes not being verified through geocoding with Metro IT Services GIS, the errors were not caught prior to the election. 

GIS refers to geographic information systems and is the primary tool used to perform redistricting. 

Goins points out that the majority of DCEC staff were not involved in assigning voters during the redistricting process and that based on interviews with DCEC officials, only four employees of the DCEC primarily worked on the redistricting process.

The Davidson County Election Commission was not aware of the issue until The Associated Press alerted them of the problem. At that time, early voting had been in operation for the last two weeks. 

Following the issue being identified, the voters who cast incorrect ballots were given the opportunity to cast provisional ballots on election day, November 8th.

Officials, however, noted that the special paper provisional ballots would only be counted if the affected races are contested after the election.

When the polls officially closed, only 117 voters of those affected by the ballot bungle had cast provisional ballots.

In his report, Goins wrote, “I am confident that through the election commission’s continued work with Metro IT Services, as well as assistance from the Comptroller’s office, they can prevent similar issues in future elections.”

Davidson County Election Commissioner Jeff Roberts said that in working with Metro Nashville’s IT services, along with the Comptroller’s office “will provide data analysis and validation by multiple independent staff, preventing similar issues in future elections.”

View Goins’ full report HERE.

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