Members of the Tennessee Senate State and Local Government Committee are scheduled to discuss a bill this week that would require comptrollers to establish an Office of Election Integrity to perform and supervise election audits.
State Senator Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma) is sponsoring the bill, SB 1939.
According to the language of the bill, it requires the Office of Election Integrity to investigate the results of each general election for president of the United States and for each United States congressional race in Tennessee by performing:
• A forensic voter audit for each county
• A forensic voting system equipment audit for each county that the comptroller deems necessary to validate the election results
• A full forensic election audit of each county that utilized physical ballots
“This bill requires each county election commission and state and local official to cooperate with the office of election integrity and meet each deadline established by the office of election integrity for purposes of meeting the requirements of this bill,” according to the language of the bill.
“If a county election commission or a state or local election official does not cooperate with an office of election integrity investigation in a timely manner, then, upon referral of the matter by the comptroller of the treasury, the attorney general and reporter must seek a writ of mandamus ordering the commission or official to comply with the request of the office of election integrity.”
Under the bill, the Office of Election Integrity must complete the investigation of the 2020 election no later than July 31, 2022. Staff members must complete each subsequent investigation no later than one year from the date of the election they are investigating.
This bill also requires the Office of Election Integrity to report the results of each investigation to the governor, the speaker of the Senate, and the speaker of the House of Representatives.
“This bill requires the office of election integrity to prepare an audit plan for the 2022 general election and each subsequent election,” according to the language of the bill.
“The initial plan must be presented to the speaker of the senate and the speaker of the house of representatives no later than September 30, 2022, and no later than September 30 in subsequent election years.”
Members of the State and Local Government Committee are scheduled to hear the bill at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday in the Senate Hearing Room 1.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star and The Georgia Star News. Follow Chris on Facebook, Twitter, Parler, and GETTR. Email tips to [email protected].
