Mary Alice Jordan fills out her ballot during the last day of early voting at the Hamilton County Election Commission on Thursday.NASHVILLE – Tennessee officials are warning the state’s 475 Democratic and Republican county election commissioners that they will get bounced off the local panels if they cross over and vote in the opposite party’s primary during the Aug. 7 election.
State Election Coordinator Mark Goins’ office last week sent the new rule, adopted July 14 by the Republican-controlled State Election Commission, to the five-member panels in each of Tennessee’s 95 counties.
The new policy says: “While serving on the county election commission a county election commission member should not vote in a primary of the opposite party which they represent. If a county election commissioner plans on doing so they should resign prior to voting or they will be subject to removal by the State Election Commission.”
State officials said in that same email that the new policy was passed as a result of a complaint against an unidentified county election commissioner in Tennessee who voted in the opposite party’s primary.
But the state’s new directive is already coming under fire from Chattanooga attorney Jerry Summers, a Democratic member on the Hamilton County Election Commission.