Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Politics / Woods Bredesen Admits Ignorance About Voting Controversy
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 3:23 PM
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Gov. Phil Bredesen admitted today he's essentially clueless about one of the state's biggest political controversies. We're only talking about the integrity of Tennessee's elections and the blatant abuse of official power. Secretary of State Tre Hargett is refusing to implement the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act, which requires a paper trail for voting machines. He's sent TBI agents to try to intimidate a citizen activist on the issue, and the chair of the state Democratic Party is calling for Hargett to resign.
About all that, the titular head of the Democratic Party is unable to comment intelligently. Bredesen obviously knows so little about it all he can't even manage to fake a decent response to reporters' questions. He insists he's too busy with more important matters. Here's the Q&A:
Q: There seems to be a pretty big political fighting brewing downstairs between Democrats and the secretary of state over paper ballots and optical scan voting machines. Do you have any feelings about that?
Bredesen: I don't at this particular point. I know there's a number of issues there. My understanding is that a lot of it has to do with the speed of implementation. I certainly understand the concerns the secretary of state might have in that regard. These things are complicated to get done. .... People having confidence in the voting process is important in its own right. To the extent to which that confidence is enhanced by having an audit trail, when you're talking about paper ballots, some way of auditing the process, I think it can be important. I think we have to give the secretary of state a little elbow room to do it in a way that he thinks is appropriate and proper. But moving in that direction I certainly have no problem with.
Q: You say we should give Tre Hargett some elbow room in implementing the Voter Confidence Act. Does that mean you don't care whether he implements it by 2010?
Bredesen: To be honest with you, I have never had a conversation with Tre as to exactly what the difficulties of doing that were. As you probably know, the governor is a little bit of a bystander in that process. It's a legislatively determined processed in terms of both the law and the operation of the secretary of state as a legislative appointee. I'm just saying I do have respect for those constitutional officers, and I certainly have had plenty of experiences where the legislature wants you to do something yesterday, and it's a little harder than that, so I would start out with a willingness to listen to what his objections are. I'm not trying to undercut anybody who's trying to make it happen more quickly in the state. I just don't know enough about the details of it to have a hard view and I'm not sure it's something that I should be engaged with.
Q: How do you feel about Hargett sending TBI agents out to the farm of a political opponent on this issue?
Bredesen: I didn't know about that. I mean, look, obviously if someone is misusing any organization of state government. And I don't know whether that falls in that category or not. I don't know the details of what you just described. That is inappropriate whether it's done by Democrats or Republicans or anyone else. But again, I do not know the details.
Q: I gather you would not join Chip Forrester in urging Secretary of State Hargett to resign?
Bredesen: No.
Q: Did you know he'd asked for him to resign?
Bredesen: No, I didn't know.
Q: You don't seem to be up to speed on this issue, governor.
Bredesen: That is a fair statement. Look, I think I have generally been successful in getting the big things done in the state. I had some overwhelming issues this year which the biggest one was the budget. Part of what I do is not engage in a whole bunch of stuff and in particular ones in which I don't even necessarily role to play besides being able to talk about it. I presume the legislature will continue to administer elections effectively just as they have done for a century here in the state of Tennessee. I was very engaged with a very complex budget and a very difficult cycle at the end of the legislative session, and I'm very engaged right with higher education. I think my time is better spent on that stuff.
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