In the 2008 Presidential Election, two out of three voters voted early. We have over ten years of experience in satellite early voting in Knox County. In 2008, we had eight sites open all twenty days and two that opened the last four days.
The Tennessee Legislature passed a law in 2008 to allow Knox County to try “Convenience Voting” as a pilot project in the 2009 municipal elections. See T.C.A. 2-3-3. The Voting Centers would open twenty days before an election just like Early Voting. They would stay open until 8:00 p.m. election day.
Voters could vote at any of the centers anytime during the twenty day period. If you waited till the last day, Election Day, your polling place would not be open. You would go and vote at any of the Centers. Just like Early Voting, you could vote at any Center and you could vote when it was most convenient to you.
This proposal would not mean that Knox County would do away with wards and precincts. They are important organizational units for the political parties and serve as part of properties’ legal description. Voters just would not have to vote in a specific precinct any longer.
For the vast majority of voters, the change will not be noticeable. It will simply be more convenient for the voters. Voters would no longer be told they were at the wrong polling place. If you moved, you would no longer have to drive all over town in order to vote.
The current system requires the Election Commission to staff 92 polling places county wide on general elections and 52 in the City. It is a challenge to find this many election day officers who know about provisional voters, change of address laws, failsafe procedure, and all the rules and regulations needed to run an election. The voters and the public would be better served by having fewer, better trained and more knowledgeable workers at the Voting Centers.
This plan would also help reduce the potential for voting fraud. All of the centers would be connected to the central database. When you vote at one center, your record would be marked immediately. This would prevent someone from voting at one place, and then going to another polling place to try to vote again.
This plan requires approval from the municipal legislative bodies as well as a “super majority” of the Election Commission (four of the five Commissioners). Subject to these approvals, we are planning Convenience Voting for the Farragut election on April 7th and the two City of Knoxville elections on September 22nd and November 3rd.
We understand that this is a big change in the way Knox County has voted historically. Planning is a must if this is going to work. As a result, the Knox County Election Commission collaborated with The Howard H. Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy to plan this pilot program. The study, submitted to the Make Voting Work Initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts is available by clicking here.
