Tennessee Election Officials Offer Reassurance On Early Voting Machine Issues

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The Tennessee Conservative Staff –

Early voting is intended to provide citizens with a reliable, more convenient way to make their voices heard, but some early voters in Tennessee have reported issues with the touch screen ballot machines that are used.

Voters in Davidson, Shelby, and Williamson counties are among those who have reported that the machines are changing their votes.

According to Davidson County election administrator Jeff Roberts, the machines have been tested to ensure integrity in this election, and the machines themselves are not changing the votes.

However, because the box beside a candidate’s name is small, many voters are accidentally selecting the name of the candidate above or below when they are trying to press tiny box.

“Sometimes you can get it, and sometimes it flips up to the one above it because you’re touching that line,” Roberts said.

Election officials say that this has not been an issue in the past because voters were given small plastic coffee stir sticks to use as a stylus on the screens. A decision was made to forego that practice this election, in an effort to be more “environmentally conscious”. However, voting locations will now once again be handing those out.

Representative Antonio Parkinson (D-Memphis-District 98) wants to know, “If they cannot press the box for their candidate, then why do we even have the box on the screen?”

Parkinson says he is concerned that this is just one more thing to make Tennesseans leery of the election process in the state.

“The state of Tennessee is one of the worst in the country when it comes to voter turnout,” Parkinson said. “We don’t need anything else to make people feel like it is unnecessary or a chore to go out and case their vote and be a part of the process.”

To ensure accurate recording of votes, voters should tap the candidate’s name instead of the box next to it. Before finalizing the ballot, it is imperative that individuals confirm that all selections are as desired and that they ask for assistance from a poll worker if needed.