House Democratic Leader Gary Odom charged Thursday that Secretary of State Tre Hargett is "dragging his feet" on implementing the Voter Confidence Act.

Rep. Odom said, "In 2008 the Tennessee General Assembly passed the Voter Confidence Act. This legislation had broad bi-partisan support and its primary purpose was to ensure that elections in Tennessee would be conducted with a system of voting machines, referred to as optical scanners, which provide a paper trail.

"According to a Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations study on the subject, the paper trail is essential to reassure voters that their vote is being counted accurately and to provide a means to audit the machines or recount votes in an election.

"Secretary Hargett has stated that the Act is very specific and requires the state to use machines certified to 2005 standards. In fact, the Act does not specify 2005 machines. It says that we shall use machines certified by the federal Election Assistance Commission.

"Recently, the Secretary of State issued a statement to the press suggesting that he cannot fulfill his obligations under the 2008 Voter Confidence Act. It is his incorrect interpretation that we must use machines certified to 2005 standards. To clear up any ambiguities that Secretary Hargett wrongly perceived, Senator Herron and I introduced an amendment that would have explicitly allowed machines certified to 2002 standards or better. Secretary Hargett fought this amendment every step of the way.

"The fact is, Secretary Hargett does not want to implement this Act. He had legislation introduced in the past legislative session to repeal the Act. Ultimately the bill was amended to delay implementation of the ACT until following the 2010 elections. The legislation eventually stalled in the Senate.

"Under current law Secretary Hargett is required to implement a verifiable voting system in the state of Tennessee. The Election Assistance Commission will approve within the next few weeks two different Scanners that could be available for use in Tenn.’s 2010 Elections.

"I call on Secretary Hargett to quit dragging his feet and implement this system in order to assure that votes are counted accurately. Tennesseans deserve the confidence that their votes are counted and counted accurately."

Secretary of State Hargett replied, “At a news conference today, Sen. Roy Herron and Rep. Gary Odom made a number of statements about me and the Department of State’s position regarding the Voter Confidence Act.

“Sen. Herron and Rep. Odom claim that I don’t support the act and that I am actively working to prevent it from being implemented. On the contrary, I’m doing my best to implement the act under a seemingly impossible set of circumstances. However, anything worth doing is worth doing right. Sen. Herron and Rep. Odom seem willing to spend $25 million of taxpayer dollars for less than the best election equipment available in their haste to get something done.”

He said, "The Voter Confidence Act requires all elections in Tennessee to be conducted with optical scan voting equipment and paper ballots by November 2010. The Department of State, through its Division of Elections, has been actively working to prepare election officials in all 95 of Tennessee’s counties for the act’s implementation. However, several logistical problems make meeting the November 2010 deadline difficult if not impossible.

"The biggest challenge is that equipment meeting the act’s specifications isn’t yet available for sale in Tennessee or anywhere else. The act requires elections to be conducted with equipment that meets the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines adopted in 2005 by the federal Election Assistance Commission. Unfortunately, no vendors have equipment that has been certified to meet those guidelines. Because the certification process is quite lengthy, it’s unlikely that any of the vendors currently used in Tennessee will become certified in time to meet the November 2010 deadline.

"In their news conference, Sen. Herron and Rep. Odom implied that it’s open to interpretation whether only equipment that meets the Election Assistance Commission’s 2005 guidelines can be used to reach compliance with the act.

"However, a June 9 memo from the General Assembly’s Office of Legal Services clearly states that the Election Assistance Commission’s 2005 guidelines must be used in order to reach compliance with the act.

“Based on the language in our statute, it is my opinion that our requirements for electronic voting systems ‘in use on or after Jan. 1, 2009 … [must meet] the applicable voluntary voting systems guidelines,’ and such language refers to the 2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines,” Sally Swaney of the Office of Legal Services wrote in the memo addressed to Rep. Gary Moore.

"Sen. Herron and Rep. Odom also stated that there’s no real difference between the 2005 guidelines and another set of standards adopted in 2002.

“The Election Assistance Commission disagrees with that point. The 2005 standards include several significant improvements over 2002 standards, including better safeguards against election software glitches, computerized hacking of election results and under voting and over voting. To me, these are more than minor differences, and I would encourage anyone who thinks there’s no difference in standards to contact the Election Assistance Commission or at least read its summary of the differences between the 2002 and 2005 standards.

“The General Assembly adopted those 2005 standards for good reason. Those standards would require the use of the most state-of-the-art equipment. We ought to adhere to those standards because Tennesseans deserve no less than the best. But when the act was adopted, no one could foresee that vendor certification would take as long as it has.

”Sen. Herron and Rep. Odom also suggested that I am really interested in repealing the act instead of merely delaying implementation, as I have repeatedly stated he wants to do.

“That claim is absolutely untrue. I fully expect that the act will be implemented during my tenure as Secretary of State. I just want to do it the right way. And to me, the right way requires delaying implementation for a couple of years to give these vendors time to get their equipment certified, which I’m confident they will do.

”Sen. Herron suggested that Republicans, including myself, don’t want paper ballots. However, an overwhelming majority of county mayors have told me that their counties cannot afford to switch systems during the present economic downturn.

“It’s very unfortunate that Sen. Herron would attempt to inject partisanship into this debate. The Voter Confidence Act passed in 2008 with near unanimous support of Democrats and Republicans – and I believe it still has that support. What we have is a difference of opinion about the best way to move forward. I wish Sen. Herron, Rep. Odom and other members of the General Assembly would support a two-year delay in implementation so we can give Tennesseans the type of election reform they truly deserve.”