NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett voiced opposition Wednesday to offering drop boxes for absentee ballots, telling a U.S. Senate panel that the state requires returning those ballots by mail in the name of security.
The Republican joined via video-conference as a witness to a hearing on election preparations by the Senate Committee on Rules & Administration. He drew high praise from GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, but scrutiny from two Democrats and an independent over the state’s opposition to make absentee voting widely available during the coronavirus pandemic, which a state judge ordered in Tennessee last month.
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota asked Hargett why Tennessee doesn’t have drop boxes, since officials are concerned nationally about U.S. Postal Service delays with the huge influx of by-mail ballots across the country. Drop boxes are not among the several issues currently being targeted in lawsuits over Tennessee’s absentee voting during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Frankly, it’s an anti-coercion methodology,” Hargett responded. “If you look at it, if someone knows you’ve got an absentee ballot and they can say, ‘Hey, I’ll be glad to take that for you and drop that off for you,’ they can ask you what you filled that ballot out or they can not turn it in at all for you.”
Hargett was joined by West Virginia Republican Secretary of State Mac Warner, Rick Stream, the Republican Director Of Elections of St. Louis County, Missouri, and Kristen Clarke, president of the National Lawyers’ Committee For Civil Rights Under Law. Clarke’s group is one that has sued Tennessee separately in federal court over its absentee voting excuses and three other absentee-related laws.