    
Bev Harris
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 10543
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? 
Votes: 2 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 13, 2009 - 5:12 pm: | 
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A recent state attorney general opinion suggests that these fired election administrators stand a good chance of success if they challenge their dismissals in court -- so stay tuned, I guess, for the lawsuits -- but state Election Director Mark Goins takes the position that election directors can be replaced at any time.
Party-centric election administration ignores the real constituency for elections, the public. An inside advantage is gained for partisan election officials when the system uses secret vote counting and fluid voter lists, both in place in Tennessee.
To be clear: Computerized vote-counting, whether on optical scan or on DREs, with paper ballots or without, is heavily reliant on the computerized compilation done by the central tabulator, which is under direct control of the election administrator and those he selects as IT administrators. These central tabulators have nifty features to allow manual changes in the vote counts. You control the tabulator, you own the election. What is happening in Tennessee is that political parties are choosing to put their own people in control of the computer, based on party affiliation.
By "fluid voter lists" I mean voter status lists that change from moment to moment, lacking frequent, mandatory procedures to "commit the data" (freeze it as of a point in time) and make it available so that changes from iteration to iteration can be compared. These voter lists incorporate voting status (ie, has/has not already voted in this election; has/has not voted absentee; etc). The Tennessee partisan massacre is putting a blanket of, in this case Republican, partisan election administrators in control of these fluid and unaccountable voting lists.
KnoxNews.com - May 13, 2009
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/humphrey/2009/05/28-county-election-administrat.ht ml
28 County Election Administrators Sacked So Far
Twenty-eight county election administrators have been already replaced since Republicans gained control of Tennessee's 95 county election commissions and more Democrats are likely to be dismissed in the months ahead.
So says state Election Coordinator Mark Goins.
Despite "a few bumps and bruises," Goins also says the transition from Democratic to Republican administrators has generally gone smoothly with the state providing special training and help to the unprecedented appointment of new officials.
A push in the Legislature to give Republicans control of the State Election Commission, meanwhile, may have hit a stumbling block with House Democrats announcing opposition to the Senate-passed bill that would make the change, SB547.
County election administrators are appointed by each county election commission. Under state law, all 95 commissions shifted to Republican control last month because Republicans now hold a majority of all seats in the Legislature.
The administrators, who oversee day-to-day operations of election offices, are paid a minimum annual salary ranging from $47,026 to $96,216, once certified under a state training program. The salary varies according to the population of the county and some counties pay more than the minimum.
While 28 counties have changed administrators, incumbent administrators in about 20 counties have notified Goins' office that they expect to be retained by the new GOP-controlled commissions, the election coordinator said.
In the remaining counties, a decision on firing the administrator hired under Democratic control and hiring a Republican administrator is still to be made. That group includes Knox County, where some Republicans have been calling for replacement of Administrator Greg MacKay.
Goins said that, in general, administrators serve at the will of the county commissions and may be re-replaced at any time. A recent attorney general's opinion, however, said that an administrator fired solely because of his or her political party affiliation might successfully challenge the dismissal in court.
So far, no lawsuits have been filed.
Here's the list of counties where turnovers have occurred with the name of the new administrator:
Benton County, Mark Ward
Bledsoe County, Lisa Wheeler
Carroll County, Vince Taylor
Cannon County, Stanley Dobson
Clay County, Wanda Daniels
Cumberland County, Sharon York
DeKalb County, Dennis Stanley
Greene County, Donna Burgner
Hardin County, Marilyn Adams
Jefferson County, Charles Gibson
Lewis County, Connie Ferguson
Loudon County, Susan Harrison
McMinn County, Kris Williams
McNairy County, applications being accepted
Macon County, Tammy Smith
Meigs County, Deloris Grissom
Monroe County, James R. Brown
Morgan County, Tim Sweat
Overton County, Craig Story
Pickett County, Tim Clark
Polk County, Doris Wise
Putnam County, Debbie Steidl
Roane County, Charles Holiway
Sevier County, Ronee Flynn
Sullivan County, Jason Booher
Union County, Debbie Viles
Wayne County, Lillie Ruth Brewer
Weakley County, Barbara Castleman |
