Evil Republican Bastards!

That seems to be the crux of the argument behind the calls to fire Sec of State Tre Hargett and strong push to scrap our recently purchased touch screen voting machines in favor of the ol' #2 pencil and a piece of paper. Basically, because they are pointing out potential problems with the recently passed "voter confidence act," they are therefore in the process of trying to steal the upcoming election.

The latest salvo comes from Democratic Leader Gary Odom who says that there is no requirement to use 2005 voting equipment standards because the statute didn't say 2005. Now, perhaps he's right, but I do recall Rep. Gary Moore (D) stating, in a House Democratic Caucus meeting attended by bloggers, essentially the same thing the Secretary of State was saying, and tried to amend the law to reflect it.

The problem here is that if we simply ignore the newer voting equipment standards and go with older ones, we risk the chance that the next election can be overturned by a court. Logic would dictate that if a law calls for adhering to an independent body's rules and regulations, you'd go with the latest version, not pick and choose previous rules to adhere to.

If its so damned critical that we use paper ballots in 2010, why not simply call a special session to pass new rules to amend the law? I'd rather have this thing settled now than to have it play out in the courts for months after the election.