Image Credit: sos.tn.gov
The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
A recently released report from Heritage Foundation puts Tennessee in first place in the nation for improvement of election integrity.
The report, released through the think tank’s online publication, ranked states in twelve categories that determine improvement since 2021. These categories included accuracy of voter lists, management of absentee ballots, and use of voter identification.
Fourteen states showed improvement, with Tennessee coming in on top. The Volunteer State earned 84 of 100 possible points on the rating scale.
The increase in Tennessee’s election integrity comes after new legislation was passed, authorizing additional sources to be used as a means of verifying the accuracy of voter rolls in the state.
The new legislation allows election coordinators to compare voter registration in the state to data from the Department of Safety, credit agencies, and the systematic alien verification for entitlements. Federal jury data can also be used to check for those who are deceased, convicted felons, or non-residents of Tennessee or the United States.
According to Heritage Foundation, “By using these sources to keep voter rolls current, election officials are working to ensure that only qualified voters are eligible to cast ballots in Tennessee.”
While improvement is something to be celebrated, Heritage Foundation legal fellow Zack Smith says the work for states is far from over.
“Unfortunately, no state is 100 percent or close to it,” Smith said.
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
2 Responses
Did they take into consideration the fact that we use ESNS machines? And anytime you use ESNS machines or any of the others you are open fraud.
This report is very deceiving. In terms of what they’re measuring – there are a lot of positives. However, I have no idea where they get their rating for voter roll cleanliness. Is this self-reported? I have evaluated multiple counties and the voter rolls are not maintained frequently or very well. The fact that this report has NO acknowledgement of the machines, machine vulnerabilities, or auditing capacity. Tennessee has variations within each of its 95 counties which adds up to 30 different types of machines from 5 different vendors across the state. Close to 70% of counties in TN have absolutely NO paper trail for ballots and are completely electronic. This lack of paper tail means it is impossible to audit the results and ensure there were no problems with the computers. Multiple bills have been proposed to strengthen the integrity of voting and close loopholes in TN but the sponsors can’t even get the bills out of committee. The GOP majority lawmakers have zero clue and zero intellectual curiosity in seeing just how vulnerable we really are. This report will do nothing to help our case. If we continue down our current road with blinders on and the GOP hoping they can keep using the loopholes for their own advantage – we’ll be Georgia in no time.