This is getting ridiculous! Info and rant after the jump... Michael Silence is now reporting [1] that the previous interpretation that write-in candidates only had to get 5% of the May 2 primary votes in their district to get on the August general election ballot is incorrect. It now appears that write-in candidates must beat the incumbent if there is one, even if the incumbent is ineligible for office (as twelve of them are for county commission). Go read the article and see if you can make heads or tails of it. To recap:

The parties picked their candidates (or not in some cases) for the primaries. All incumbents for county commission except one, I believe, were running again, many unopposed.

After a ruling on Shelby County term limits for county commission, it was decided that the ruling also applies to Knox County. At that point, candidates had already "qualified" and had already been placed on the ballot.

The official ballot was prepared, machines programmed, and absentee ballots mailed out as if nothing unusual was going on.

Following objections, there was a ruling that the disqualified, term-limited candidates could not be removed from the ballot and the primary could not be rescheduled and the primaries would go on as planned with the ballot that had been set.

Another decision said that if a disqualified candidate won in their district, the party would decide how to nominate a replacement for the August elections.

More than 40 write-in candidates filed by the deadline to qualify them to have their votes counted and mounted campaigns. Their understanding was that if they got 5% of the votes in their district they would be on the August ballot.

Early voting started. By this point, many absentee ballots had already been received back, before the deadline for write-in candidate certification.

The day after early voting started, this latest decision came down that write-in candidates have to get more votes than the "official" candidate on the ballot to be included in the August ballot.

There are numerous lawsuits, some already thrown out, some still pending, as to whether the primary should be postponed and whether the term-limits also apply to all elected officials (as it says in the Knox County charter). No one can seem to get a definitive court ruling on these questions.

Additional questions were raised as to whether the Knox County charter is even valid, or if Knox County even exists legally. A local court indicated that was the case.

What the hell? This is really amateur hour. Much of the confusion seems to be coming down from state election officials, who trickle out opinions way past when they are needed, and the fact that local courts and the Tennessee Supreme court are unwilling to hear challenges and issue rulings so they can be appealed if necessary to decide these issues once and for all. The Knox County Law Director has recused himself, citing a conflict of interest and saying he can't issue opinions because he represents "all of Knox County Government." The last time I checked, the people are the government. At least that's the way it's supposed to work. Who's representing the people? Herb Moncier? Is Herb Moncier the only guy in town who cares about democracy and free and fair and legitimate local elections? The newspapers aren't helping. The KNS says "Wait, don't vote. See what develops." What the hell? The only local mainstream newspaper is advocating that voters not vote? The local weekly tabloid issued a bunch of "endorsements", many of which were "vote for the ineligible candidate and let the party pick a replacement." What the hell? Vote for somebody who isn't eligible for office? The maneuvering and posturing and interpretation of rules all appear to be geared towards maintaining the status quo and letting the party power brokers, not the people, decide who will be on the ballot in August. Instead of taking advantage of term limits finally being enforced twelve years after voters enacted them to shake things up, the local political machine (of which there only appears to be one, really) is still scheming to keep new blood or fresh ideas out of local government and perpetuate the good-old-boy politically connected power structure. Maybe Knox County needs to get Jimmy Carter and some U.N. election observers in there pronto. (P.S. Don't blame the Knox County Election Commission entirely. At this point they are caught in the middle and just doing what they are told. A valid concern, however, is that for twelve years they haven't been pressing the term-limits issue to get clear answers on how they were to proceed with putting on a legal and legitimate election. Why do you suppose that is?)