Tue
Aug 15 2006
09:47 am
Claiborne Voting Mix-Up Spawns Lawsuit
By: Left Of The Dial

Leif Jeffers has filed suit contesting the results of the Public Defender's race in the 8th Judicial Circuit (which includes Campbell, Claiborne, Scott, Union and Fentress counties).

Jeffers thought he had won the race last week after supposedly defeating Martha Yoakum by 88 votes. However, as votes in Claiborne County were being canvassed to be certified a discrepancy was noticed that erased Jeffers' 88 vote lead and gave Yoakum an additional 12 votes--a 100 vote swing.

Jeffers is now claiming that work done by election officials at Claiborne County's Harrogate precinct was "a mess" and he is seeking to have the results nullified.

Claiborne County election officials do admit there's been a problem and labeled it "human error".

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Anonymous's picture

Claiborne Voting Mix-Up Spawns Lawsuit

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2006/08/16 - 11:30am.

I can't believe that this could happen in a town that has a University. This is the computer age and that college has plans for a new medical school. I sure hope they train their doctors in Claiborne County better than they train election officials. What in the world could have happened???

bizgrrl's picture

Claiborne county has a

Submitted by bizgrrl on Wed, 2006/08/16 - 5:34pm.

Claiborne county has a University?

Left Of The Dial's picture

LMU

Submitted by Left Of The Dial on Wed, 2006/08/16 - 6:38pm.

Lincoln Memorial University is located in Harrogate. Fine school, beautiful campus.

Greg Mackay's picture

What in the world could have happened???

Submitted by Greg Mackay (not verified) on Wed, 2006/08/16 - 8:08pm.

(link...)

It appears that they did not replace their entire voting system. It looks like they kept their Micro Vote 464s' and used the Fed $ to buy an eSlate for every precinct to comply with the HAVA provisions regarding persons with disabilities.
It seems as if on election night the computer patch to allow the two systems to talk to each other failed to work.
Then, with everyone in the county breathing down their neck, they must have had to add the two totals by hand.
They had scores of contests, like us, and they would have had to add figures for each contest in each and every precinct.

We are fortunate here. We had the money to replace the whole system.
Can you imagine trying to run an election with two different voting systems?

Anonymous's picture

Union County Commissioner said to have bought votes

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2006/10/04 - 6:16pm.

Looks like the controversy is still going on. On 10/04/2006 WBIR released a story that Charlie Cox, a Union County Commissioner had paid voters $10 a vote to vote for Yoakum as Public Defender in Union County. I am sure that Martha was not part of this though. It would be a shame if someone like Cox lost the entire election for her. We'll have to wait and see.

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