UPDATE:
Thursday morning Davidson County Election Administrator Jeff Roberts provided The Tennessee Star with the section of The Tennessee Code Annotated cited by Davidson County Election Commission when it voted to move the election referendum date on the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act from December 5 to December 15.
But Jim Roberts, no relation to Jeff Roberts, the attorney who organized the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act told The Star on Thursday afternoon that the section of the Tennessee Code Annotated in question does not support the decision by the election commission to move the date of the referendum.
You can read the story that outlines this exchange here at The Tennessee Star.
Original Story:
Metro Nashville officials on Wednesday still refused to cite which portion of the Tennessee Code permits them to move the prospective election date for voters to say yes or no to the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act.
They had ample opportunity to respond to The Tennessee Star’s requests for comment Wednesday.
Wednesday morning, The Star emailed four of the five members of the Davidson County Election Commission — except for Emily Reynolds, whose contact information was apparently unavailable.
The Star also, Wednesday, emailed Metro Nashville Legal Director Bob Cooper, staff for Nashville Mayor John Cooper, and Metro Nashville Elections Administrator Jeff Roberts. Roberts did not return repeated requests for comment on the matter Tuesday either.
Specifically, The Star stated the following:
“This morning we published an article that reported the Davidson County Election Commission has not yet specified the section of the Tennessee Code Annotated by which it has the authority to change the conditional date of the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act election referendum,” The Star said.
“The submitted date was December 5, but moved back to December 15.”
We asked each of them the following two questions:
• What section of the Tennessee Code Annotated are you relying upon in setting the conditional date?
• Also, if there is anything factually incorrect in the article we published then please let us know and we will make a correction.
By Wednesday evening only one of those seven individuals, Election Commissioner Jim DeLanis, responded.
“Thank you for your inquiry,” DeLanis said.
“I have forwarded it to our AOE Jeff Roberts for response.”
As reported, The Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act referendum, if approved, would roll back Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s 34 to 37 percent tax increase. As reported last month, the Nashville Election Commission voted three to two to neither approve nor reject the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act. They instead passed the matter on to a chancery court to guide them on how to proceed.
Had commissioners approved the referendum as submitted then voters would have decided during a December 5 referendum. But commissioners moved that back, as a conditional date, to December 15. Commission members said they moved the date back because they “want sufficient time to put the [November 3] presidential election to bed.”
No one during last month’s Election Commission meeting appeared to cite the portion of the Tennessee Code that permitted them to move the election date.
If the Tennessee Code, in fact, did not permit Election Commissioners to move the date then this suggests they failed to do their do their duty and stick with the original submitted date of Dec. 5.
As The Star reported Tuesday, members of the Davidson County Election Commission cancelled a meeting they had previously scheduled for Tuesday.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Rick, you are not alone. It makes me angry how Comrade Cooper is making Nashville Moscow on the Cumberland but the worst part is feeling that there is no recourse. And there are others, liberals even, who feel the same.
I keep hearing a small voice in my ear saying “No taxation without representation.”
Thank you Tennessee Star! You are the only media out locally to followup on this apparent blatant disregard of the TN law. Senator Dickerson, this is your district, you are running for re-election this November 3, 2020. What is your position on the Davidson county election commission not following the law? You are running TV ads that your opponent supported a tax on water, how about the people of your district rights to vote on a referendum for a 34% property tax increase vote? We need to hear from you? Also are you going to call out the TN secretary of State for not enforcing the laws of administered by the State Election coordinator? Davidson county charter is a creation of the State of TN and they are accountable for their actions. Senator Dickerson are you going to call for a removal of the Davidson county election commissioners and administrator of elections for failing to follow the law? Please make the Davidson county government be accountable to the people. Senator Dickerson the election commissioners and administrator should be held personally liable for harming the people of Davidson County and your silence is very telling of your position! Please ask for their removal asap.
Where is any legal authority to stop these crooked democrats? This is so disgusting as a citizen to wake up to a story every other day that these crooked democrats are doing whatever they want and answering to no one. How can they not allow the citizens to vote. If Cooper and his crooks are going to be allowed to do whatever they want and no one doing anything, I have to stop reading about this, it makes me really angry and upset, Does no person of authority care? Do we live in Moscow?
TN Secretary of State has the authority to correct this bad faith government of our un-elected, election commissioners and administrator. He is appointed by the Tennessee legislature. Please contact your State senators and State Representatives to ask for his removal for not enforcing the state election laws. He is responsible for all elections in the state. Senator Dickerson lives in Davidson county and is running for re-election in November.