In the first major election since Republicans took control of the Secretary of State's office, which includes the Division of Elections, there were voting problems reported across the state. Most appear to involve denying voters a ballot because of errors in election system databases.

First reports came out of Shelby County. There was a similar case here in East Tennessee in Sevier County.

Details are sketchy, but the Knoxville News Sentinel had an interesting quote from the Sevier County election administrator: "The state of Tennessee has recently been testing new computer software meant to better report historical voting data, Flynn said, and precinct workers were inadvertently given false information about voters due to problems with the system."

Coincidentally, the state's election website was down on election day, and unofficial results were not reported until two days later.

Steve Steffens, who was earlier skeptical about the scope of the problem, is all over the Shelby County voting irregularities. Shelby DA Bill Gibbons, former GOP candidate for governor, was even denied a ballot, and has called in the TBI to conduct a "criminal investigation" into the election in which Democrats lost every single countywide race in his heavily Democratic jurisdiction. Congressman Steve Cohen has now asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate.

Earlier this year, newly appointed Republican election administrators sent letters to voters in Union and Benton counties claiming they weren't properly registered. One voter, the wife of a Democratic state representative, had been registered and voting for 47 years. This prompted Rep. Gary Odom to request another TBI investigation.

Last year, Secretary of State Tre Hargett and Division of Elections coordinator Mark Goins continued their refusal to implement the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act that was passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Governor Bredesen in 2008. The measure required voter verifiable election systems in all 95 counties in time for the 2010 elections. In January of this year, the Republican controlled state legislature backed their play, delaying implementation until 2012. Elections in November 2010 will decide who will be governor and the makeup of the state legislature.

So what does all this mean?

We realize that elections are run by people and that people sometimes make innocent mistakes. But do we just throw up our hands and accept the results? Do we tell Shelby County, yeah, there were problems, but the outcome is close enough for government work? Is that the Secretary of State's standard for elections?

And when you look at the series of events since Republicans took control of the legislature, at some point you have to start asking yourself if there's a pattern here.

If it walks like a duck...