What happens if something “fishy” happens?  The power of poll watchers.
Fourth in a series of election integrity tips to help improve the safety/security of elections in Williamson County.

So far, through ten days of early voting, this election has seemingly run smoothly.  Yes, there has been a small glitch here or there, but the Williamson County Election Commission (WCEC) poll workers have pretty well handled them.

And that’s good, given the machinery they’re using on which we now vote is totally new and wasn’t in place just a little over two months ago.

But what if something unusual happens in the election going forward?  Then what?

Well, first of all, that’s where poll watchers come into play.

In last October’s Franklin Alderman election, for instance, six Dominion scanner/tabulators stopped counting votes in three voting centers on election day.  The problem wasn’t discovered until the polls started to close and poll workers at one vote center began looking at the scanner tapes, which document the number of votes the scanner counted.  Upon hearing a worker say “that’s not right…,” a poll watcher moved into position to begin documenting the problem.

That’s exactly what poll watchers are supposed to do.

We later learned that this happened at two other voting centers as well.  (This was one of the performance reasons Williamson County later kicked Dominion out of the county and replaced them with ES&S machinery.)

Because the poll watcher quickly alerted the candidate for whom he was poll watching, the candidate called our group – Tennessee Voters for Election Integrity – into motion.  The candidate, her poll watcher and our entity were able to begin documenting the extent of the problem and worked closely with the WCEC to learn what was going to be done.

Working with the Secretary of State, the WCEC determined that Williamson County had just experienced an “incomplete election” so a hand recount was ordered for the next day.  It verified the winners and losers and, ultimately, matched the number of votes that were contained on the USB sticks from each scanner, which had been tallied on the central tabulator after polls closed on election day.  It was that hand recount that became the official tally for the election.

In the meantime, both the candidate and our organization filed open records requests to see all the election artifacts and, interestingly, another issue cropped up: a phantom software that machine inspectors for candidates had never been shown had been running on all but one scanner/tabulator.  Other issues were uncovered, as well, on which we’ve been working with the WCEC since then to resolve.

But it was the poll watcher who helped elevate the initial machine glitches to where the candidate could begin to address the issue.

So, could that happen in this May 2022 primary election?  It’s always possible.

If a problem is uncovered by a poll worker, poll watcher or candidate that the candidate feels is egregious enough to warrant contesting the election, he/she must go before a Williamson County court judge to officially register the complaint and possibly contest the election, gain the right to inspect the ballots or other aspects of the election, and stop the election’s certification until the issue is resolved.  Certification of the election usually occurs ten business days after election day.

Because of the collaborative efforts between our group, as well as Williamson Families and the Williamson County GOP, those powerful sets of eyes and ears are watching and noting as much as possible at all polling locations.  We now have more than 170 poll watchers in place throughout early voting and election day in all voting centers.

Having poll watchers in every voter center and assisted living facility where voting is occurring and in the main Election Office where absentee ballot counting will be occurring is vital to catching a problem and getting it addressed before it creates havoc in an election.  Not only are poll watchers watching for issues, but, among other steps, they’re tracking serial numbers on ballot marking devices and scanners/tabulators, security seal numbers on both machines and the portable ballot box used in assisted living voting.

We plan to repeat this poll watcher effort in both the August 2022 primary/general election and the November 2022 general election.  If you’d like to join this effort, please watch for more information about poll watch training this summer.  Or send a note indicating your interest to [email protected].

Frank Limpus

Tennessee Voters for Election Integrity

Tennessee Voters for Election Integrity shares with state legislators, election commissions and government officials opportunities that the group has uncovered in their research to plug holes in the county’s and state’s election systems.   And for these leaders to make — and lead — necessary changes in machinery and methods that will strengthen Tennessee’s leadership in election integrity while improving citizen trust and support of our election processes.