200-plus votes cast for wrong races in Nashville, officials say. (Photo by Steve Brown/Nashville Banner/Nashville Banner/TNS via Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — After a flurry of incorrect votes that resulted in three Republican and two Democratic state representatives losing their seats, the Tennessean is looking to correct the record and correct a mistake.
The newspaper is asking the candidates for the three districts — two of them representing rural areas and one representing the metro area — about whether it’s possible their votes were cast incorrectly.
While Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett previously said no, there’s no way for him to correct the thousands of votes that were cast in the wrong races, so the newspaper decided to look into the matter in the hopes of restoring the accuracy of the results as the legislature adjourns this week.
State Rep. Terry Holton and State Rep. Paul R. Johnson, both Democrats, lost their seats in Tuesday’s special election after the newspaper found three of their votes were cast in the wrong race.
The paper cited a number of candidates who are running for these seats and asked whether it would be possible for any of the election results to be thrown out when it’s determined that the votes were cast for the wrong candidates.
“If I were to have voted in the wrong district or wrong race, it would cause a problem for the people for whom I voted,” Holton said in response to what the paper asked him about.
“I’ll accept the scrutiny that you put on me,” Johnson said to the newspaper. “I don’t think it could be possible that anyone voted for the wrong race.”
“That’s not the point of this conversation,” Holton said. “The point is, it’s impossible for anyone to vote for the wrong race. There was some votes for the wrong person in the wrong race. If there was, that is a problem.”
Rutherford County Clerk-Recorder Pam Smith told the newspaper that she has been unable to find any evidence that voters in the District 6 race for the state House of Representatives in Rutherford County were voting for the wrong person.
But District 6 includes a wide area that includes most of Rutherford County, with the exception of several small areas in and around Winchester.
“Where there’s no evidence, there is no reason to