I voted friday 10-24-08 at 4pm at New Harvest Park and was disturbed to have to sign an "application for ballot" that said something to the effect of, "If you apply to vote early and are not qualified to do so you can be fined 3000 dollars and charged with a felony."

What would a first time, or even slightly confused, voter think when asked to sign such a statement?

It felt like voter intimidation to me, so I asked the poll worker what it meant. The kindly old lady looked at it, and admitted she had never read it. She said, "Well, I guess it means that if you aren't registered, or aren't a citizen, then you can't vote." I said I didn't like having to sign the statement, which seemed intimidating. At least one poll worker agreed with me.

I tried to find the exact wording of the"application for ballot" on the Knox County Election Commission website, but couldn't. Thats part of the problem.

The website makes no reference to this statement on the website, though they do make reference to the "application for ballot" that it is a part of.

http://www.knoxcounty.org/election/pdfs/what_to_expect.pdf

Here it states:

The registrar will look up your name in the poll book and have you complete an application for ballot.

Further down the page it seems to address the issue of what might happen to a voter who tries to vote without being registered:

If you are at the correct voting precinct but we cannot find that you are registered to vote, and you claim that you registered to vote at a particular agency, the only alternative that you have is to vote a Provisional Ballot. You will first complete an application to vote by provisional ballot. Then you will be handed a paper ballot to vote on and place in a provisional ballot envelope and deposited in the provisional ballot box. Note- whether or not your provisional vote will count will be based on whether or not we can verify that you actually did register to vote with another public agency.

Nowhere does the Knox County Election Commission (KCEC) website prepare the voter for having to sign a statement that states that they will be fined 3000$ and charged with a felony if they apply to vote without being "qualified". This needs to change.

The only place on the KCEC website where I can find a statement like the one on the "application for ballot" is on the voter registration form where it states:

WARNING: Giving false information to register to vote or attempting to register when not qualified is a felony punishable by not less than one (1) year nor more than six (6) years’ imprisonment or a fine of $3,000 or both.

http://www.knoxcounty.org/election/pdfs/registration.pdf

Even this statement is extreme. What if you attempt to register without knowing you aren't qualified? Maybe you have a felony conviction that doesn't bar you from voting in the state you were convicted in, but does disqualify you in TN. Seems like any sane judge would throw such a case out. So why word it this way on either the registration form or the application for ballot? Why not simply include language that emphasizes that the falsification must be on purpose, something like "Knowingly giving false information to register to vote is a felony punishable by not less than one year...."

I anticipate a response by Mr Mackay, our fine elections administrator, who I do NOT hold accountable for this voter intimidation on the application for ballot. Mackay seems to have done more than previous election administrators to make voting easy and unintimidating (I would like voting machines that give you a paper receipt that provides a record of who you voted for, but that's another issue.), and he should be commended for his work on convenience and early voting. This intimidation on the application for ballot is totally out of character for his office.

Thanks

-Sugarfatpie (AKA Alex Pulsipher)

"X-Rays are a hoax."-Lord Kelvin