Elected Official Says Davidson County Primary Defaulted to GOP Ballot

Mary Mancini at a press conference Monday outside Davidson County Election Commission headquarters Blake Farmer/WPLN

Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall – who is a Democrat – says he mistakenly voted in this month’s Republican Primary. He says that voting officials are partly to blame.

Hall says in a letter to the five-member election commission that he “never, not once” was asked if he wanted to vote in the Democrat or the Republican Primary. He didn’t notice until afterward that he’d voted on the GOP side. He was then told that the new computer system used to check in voters at the polling site apparently defaults to the Republican ballot if no preference is stated.

Progressive advocacy group Tennessee Citizen Action has now found a few others with similar stories. Executive director Mary Mancini says the ballot mix-ups point to systemic flaws.

“There are issues with the electronic poll books, but there are also problems with the Davidson County Election Commission. That’s why we’re calling for an audit of the Election Commission because there are problems and they’re not being addressed. In fact, they’re not being admitted to.”

Davidson County Election Administrator Albert Teiche did not respond to messages or reporters waiting in his office.

The issue has been raised to the state’s coordinator of elections, who sent a letter to Teiche asking for an explanation.