Politics & Government

Less Than 25% of Misassigned Nashville Voters Have Cast New Ballots

Those who did cast provisional ballots will have them thrown out unless the election is contested and a recount is ordered.

(Tennessee Lookout)

By Sam Stockard, Tennessee Lookout

November 8, 2022

Less than a fourth of misassigned voters cast new ballots by mid-day.

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By 3:30 p.m., 99 people voted with special provisional ballots in Tuesday’s election after casting votes on incorrect ballots during early voting, according to Davidson County Election Administrator Jeff Roberts.

The 438 identified as voting on incorrect ballots during early voting were asked to vote Tuesday on special provisional ballots at the Murfreesboro Pike election office. But their votes will not be counted unless an election is contested and a judge orders a recount, according to Roberts.

Find out what's happening in Nashvillefor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Questions abound.

A Nashville voter tells the Tennessee Lookout she went to the Nashville Downtown Library Tuesday to vote, but when checking in she was told she would need to fill out a paper ballot instead of using the electronic voting machine. She was not given a reason explaining why she was “special.”

After seeing a Monday story on the Tennessee Lookout website, she realized she was probably one of the voters identified as slated to receive an incorrect ballot, which would have forced her to vote in an incorrect congressional district or state House or Senate race. She wanted to know how she could be certain her vote would be counted.

Roberts said Monday the office identified about 500 people who would have received incorrect ballots on Election Day.

The votes of people who were set to vote in the wrong district and were required to use those special provisional ballots will be counted Wednesday morning, according to Roberts.

The election office had to put them in a provisional bag to be locked and sealed and separated from normal provisionals, Roberts said.

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