By Angela Hatton
Nashville, TN – A new voter law passed this year during the Tennessee General Assembly has Secretary of State Tre Hargett stuck between a rock and a hard place. The new Voter Confidence Act requires county election boards to use optical scan voting machines and paper ballots. The measure passed in compliance with federal standards adopted in 2005. However, Hargett says counties will have difficulty implementing the changes by the November 2010 elections because there aren't any vendors certified to sell the proper machines. Hargett says it will take commissions up to two years to get certification and that would be too late for the next election cycle. Hargett has asked the state government for an extension on the law until the 2012 elections.