(Headline USA) Hundreds of Tennessee votes were cast in the wrong congressional districts during the state’s early voting period, according to election officials.
The state revealed this week that more than 435 voters in Davidson County, Tennessee, cast their mail-in ballots for the wrong congressional races due to confusion caused by redistricting. It is not clear how the mistakes were made, but election officials said they plan to investigate what happened and allow all voters whose ballots were invalid to vote in person on Election Day.
Jeff Roberts, the county’s election administrator, noted that those residents who choose to vote in person after being notified of the mistakes made on their ballots will be “offered a yellow envelope that has your name on it with your specific ballot inside,” and will not be allowed to go to the voting machines.
“We will then sit down and see what caused the issue to begin with, you know, ‘Where did it originate?’” Roberts said. “So that when we do redistricting again in 10 years, we don’t go through this issue, with the voters getting in the wrong, misassigned precinct.”
Until they can figure out what led to the error, Roberts said the election commission is accepting responsibility.
“The way I look at it, until we know for sure, we’re accepting responsibility,” he said.
Democrat leaders in the state have slammed Republicans for their redistricting efforts and demanded that Roberts resign.
“I think that leads to zero confidence in his ability to lead the Davidson County Election Commission and he should step down or the election commission should remove him,” Hendrell Remus, chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party, said.
Roberts dismissed Remus’s criticism, saying that his office is doing the best it can with the tools it’s been given.
“Well, you know my goal in life is to always do as good a job as I possibly can. I won’t be perfect. I will strive to be perfect,” Roberts said. “But as long as I know I’ve done everything I can do to do a good job for voters, I can sleep at night.”
