Tennessee’s Secretary of State is responding to concerns of ‘election rigging’ and voter fraud raised in the Presidential race, saying Tennessee’s voting system is “very secure.”
Tre Hargett spoke to reporters in Nashville Monday afternoon addressing comments from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Trump said that if he were to lose the contest, it would be by a rigged election.
While the allegations were not aimed specifically at Tennessee, Hargett, a Republican, says he’s received numerous calls to his office over the last few weeks – but most have come from media sources, and very few from concerned voters themselves.
“I keep hearing about this rigged election, nobody’s calling our office and saying ‘gosh, you’ve got to go stop this, or we’re concerned about this,'" said Hargett. "But by and large here in Tennessee, based on what I know, elections have been run in very fair and honest and transparent fashion.”
He says impartiality starts on the local level, as ordinary citizens will be the ones counting ballots.
“And that’s a bipartisan group of citizens all across the state," said Hargett. "On the local level, there’s gonna be between 13 to 15 thousand poll officials who will be working there to make sure the elections are fair, and make sure they are impartial, and make sure the votes, as cast, will be counted.”
Hargett says he hasn’t been contacted from either the Trump or Hillary Clinton campaigns about an issue of election rigging.
On the issue of poll watchers, Hargett says the public is invited to observe and ensure the political process is being fairly enacted at all polling stations -- but poll watchers must be registered to the local clerk's office or election official and cannot interfere in any way with citizens exercising their right to vote.
According to 538.com and numerous polls,Trump has a 95 percent chance of winning in the Volunteer State.
