Tag: Tre Hargett

Secretary of State Urges Tennesseans to Become Poll Workers for Upcoming 2024 Elections

Kaitlin Housler
Poll Workers

Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett is urging those eligible across the Volunteer State to become poll workers for the upcoming August 1 primary elections and the November 5 general election.

The job of poll workers is to help polling sites run smoothly during early voting and on Election Day by conducting various tasks, including greeting voters, answering questions, explaining how to cast a ballot, and counting votes at their community locations.

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Tennessee Secretary of State Certifies Presidential Candidates for 2024 Super Tuesday Ballot

Kaitlin Housler

The Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office announced it certified the names of nine Republicans and one Democratic presidential candidate for the Super Tuesday Presidential Preference Primary and County Primary Election.

The 2024 Tennessee presidential primary will be held on the same day as primaries in 14 other states on March 5, 2024, known as Super Tuesday.

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Fourth Quarter 2022 Business Filings in Tennessee Recorded as Second Highest in the State’s History

Kaitlin Housler

Data from the Tennesse Secretary of State’s Office shows that new business filings in Tennessee for the fourth quarter of 2022 were the second highest in the state’s history.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, 16,780 new entities were filed in the state, bringing the total number of business entities operating in the Volunteer State to 485,995, according to the Tennessee Quarterly Business and Economic Indicators report.

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Secretary of State’s Office Urging Vulnerable Tennesseans to Utilize Its ‘Safe at Home’ Address Confidentiality Program

Kaitlin Housler

Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett is encouraging vulnerable Tennesseans to protect their address by taking advantage of his office’s Safe at Home address confidentiality program.

Hargett’s call for Tennesseans to take advantage of the program comes during National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month and National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, which was observed on Wednesday.

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‘Honor Vote Program’ Allows Tennesseans to Dedicate Their Vote to a Veteran or Active-Duty U.S. Military Member

Kaitlin Housler

Tennesseans are able to ceremonially dedicate their vote in the State and Federal general election this November to a veteran or an active-duty member of the U.S. military. The Tennessee Secretary of State’s Honor Vote Program “lets Tennesseans dedicate their vote to those who are serving or have served our country.”

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Secretary of State Tre Hargett Charged with DUI After Attending Bonnaroo Music Festival

Aaron Gulbransen

Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett was charged with a DUI after attending the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Coffee County on Friday.

According to The Tennessee Journal, the secretary was at the event “from Friday afternoon through around 11:30 p.m. when he was stopped by Tullahoma police. He was given a blood test and charged with DUI.”

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Families Can Celebrate Tennessee’s Birthday This Saturday at the Tennessee State Museum and the State Library

Kaitlin Housler

The Tennessee State Museum and Tennessee State Library & Archives will host free events Saturday where families can celebrate Tennessee’s 226th birthday.

The Statehood Day Celebration hosted by the Tennessee State Library & Archives will have live music, a children’s scavenger hunt, games, crafts, a historic photography demonstration, historical reenactments, and an open house for the Early Literacy Center at the Library & Archives.

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Tennessee Secretary of State Hargett: Watch Out for Mailers Claiming Business Owners Must Obtain a ‘Tennessee Certificate of Existence’

Morgan Nicole Veysey

The Tennessee Secretary of State, Tre Hargett, warned businesses about a recently surfaced scam. Businesses have begun receiving ‘deceptive mailers’ from a company under two names: Tennessee Certificate Service and TN Certificate of Existence Filing Company.

“Our Division of Business and Charitable Organizations and I personally have heard of multiple complaints from business owners across Tennessee about these misleading mailers. We have seen scams like this before, with similar deceptive language that implies that businesses must have a Certificate of Existence to complete its formation or to fully operate in the state,” said Secretary Hargett. “This is not the case. Unfortunately, businesses who order a Certificate of Existence through these scammers may be paying an exorbitant amount for something that is totally unnecessary or would only cost $20 through our office.”

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Tennessee Law Puts Up Several Barriers to Keep Tennesseans from Recalling Their Local School Board Member

Chris Butler
Board Meeting

If you live in Tennessee and you’re so upset with your local school board member that you want to recall him or her then you’re not going to like what state law has to say about the subject. One of Tennessee’s largest cities will apparently permit you to recall your local school board members, but the state’s vast other regions will not.

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Joan Carter Replaces Late Husband as State Representative

Cooper Moran
Joan Carter

Joan Carter was appointed by a unanimous vote on Wednesday to serve as the State Representative for the 29th District, replacing her late husband Rep. Mike Carter. 

While the business of the Tennessee General Assembly has concluded for the year, the appointment serves as an honor to the late representative and will allow Carter to carry on the legacy of her husband. She will serve as the state representative for the area on an interim basis, until the conclusion of the special election with the primary election being scheduled for July 27 and the general for September 14. 

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Tennessee to Hold Special Election for State Representative

Cooper Moran

Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett has set a date for a special election to fill the open State Representative position for District 29.

The primary election is scheduled for July 27 and the general for September 14. Candidates can pick up petitions immediately, and the qualifying deadline is noon on June 17 — Hargett said in a tweet on Wednesday. Hargett accepted the writ of election from Governor Bill Lee on Tuesday afternoon.

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Nearly 3,000 Tennesseans Have Signed Up to Work Polls

Anthony Gockowski

Nearly 3,000 Tennesseans have signed up to be poll workers for the state’s August 6 primary election, Secretary of State Tre Hargett said.

“I am encouraged by how many students and young adults have applied to serve as poll officials,” Hargett said in a press release. “A successful election would not be possible without these Tennesseans choosing to serve in their community.”

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Gov. Bill Lee Not Keen on Voting by Mail in Tennessee

Chris Butler

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Tuesday that fear of catching COVID-19 is not reason enough to vote by mail in the coming elections.

“I think that what we want to do in this state is remove the reason to have fear about going to the polling booths. We have worked really really hard to set up businesses in a way that people can feel safe to go into them, and we’re going to do the same thing with our elections,” Lee said at a press conference Tuesday.

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Groups Sue to Expand Absentee Voting in Tennessee

Anthony Gockowski

Two legal organizations have filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Tre Hargett in an effort to overturn Tennessee’s “unconstitutional” restrictions on absentee voting.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Campaign Legal Center. The two groups filed the complaint on behalf of several Tennessee organizations “whose many members are not eligible for vote by mail under current law.”

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Lawyer Activist Group Files Federal Court Injunction to Block Tennessee’s New Law Seeking to Stop Illegal, Incompetent Voter Registration Drives

Jason M. Reynolds

A lawyer activist organization in Washington, D.C., is trying to block Tennessee’s efforts to secure its elections from fraud and incompetence by filing an injunction in federal court, but one political observer isn’t buying it, saying the law combats illegal registration efforts.

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Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office Responds to Tennessean Article About State Rep. Matthew Hill’s Business

Chris Butler

  A spokesman for Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett said whether State Rep. Matthew Hill, R- Jonesborough, should have registered or disclosed his business with the state depends upon what kind of business it is. This, on the same day The Tennessean published an article saying Hill has not registered or disclosed his international Christian magic supply company with state officials. “Corporations, limited liability companies (LLCs), limited partnerships (LPs), and limited liability partnerships (LLPs) are required to register and submit reporting documents to our office under various corporate laws,” Dodd told The Tennessee Star in an emailed statement late Thursday afternoon, right before the office closed for the day. “If a business is a sole proprietorship or a general partnership, it is not required to register with our office. Many small businesses operate under one of these models.” Dodd did not elaborate further as to whether Hill was still supposed to register his particular business with the state. According to the website for Hill’s business, the Dock Haley Gospel Magic Company, the business sells Christian merchandise “to help win the souls of the lost!” The website does not appear to specify whether the business is a sole proprietorship, a general…

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Commentary: 40 Years Of Congress Not Proposing Any Constitutional Amendments Does Not Mean That Changes To The Constitution Are Not Wanted

Gregory Watson

August 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the very last time that Congress proposed an amendment to the United States Constitution. It was on August 22, 1978, that the 95th Congress offered to the state legislatures for ratification a constitutional amendment that–had it been ratified by the required number of states within its 7-year deadline on August 22, 1985–would have granted to Washington, D.C. two United States Senators and however many members of the United States House of Representatives the District of Columbia’s population would have warranted. But the lack of action by Congress over the past four decades in proposing constitutional amendments certainly has not meant that there is no desire among Americans to change the federal Constitution. Gaining momentum during that same decade of the 1970s was a movement within the state legislatures to trigger the calling of an “Article V Convention” whereby state lawmakers may largely–but not entirely–bypass a recalcitrant Congress and push for a federal constitutional amendment that, perhaps, Congress might understandably prefer to suppress.  In this particular case, that would be an amendment requiring the federal budget to be in balance. Article V of the U.S. Constitution provides in pertinent part:  “The Congress…on the application…

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The Proposed 1972 Equal Rights Amendment And Its Still-Unfinished Checkered History with Tennessee State Lawmakers

Gregory Watson
Equal Rights Amendment protest

If you thought that the proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the United States Constitution offered by the 92nd Congress to the state legislatures for ratification back in 1972 was just a distant memory–and a thing completely of the past–think again. Its cheerleaders during the 1970s endeavored to sell ERA as nothing more than guaranteeing equal legal rights for women and men. And, certainly, that had a nice ring to it. The U.S. Senate shouted its approval of ERA on March 22, 1972, with 84 yeas, 8 nays and 7 not voting. Previously, on October 21, 1971, the U.S. House of Representatives roared its blessing with 354 yeas, 24 nays and 51 not voting. And, with that, ERA was placed before the nation’s state legislatures for their consideration, pursuant to the well-established procedures found in the U.S. Constitution’s Article V. In tendering ERA to the states, the 92nd Congress had imposed a customary deadline of seven years–or until March 22, 1979–for America’s state lawmakers to fully ratify ERA in order for the measure to officially become part of the U.S. Constitution. With 50 states in the Union in 1972–and still 50 in it today–a proposed federal constitutional amendment must be…

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Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett Refuses to Fully Cooperate With Voter Fraud Commission

Tennessee Star Staff

  Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett is refusing to fully cooperate with the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, on which Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach serves as vice chairman. “Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett said today his office legally can’t agree to a request from President Donald Trump’s commission on election integrity to provide personal information about voters,” the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported on Friday: “Although I appreciate the commission’s mission to address election-related issues, like voter fraud, Tennessee state law does not allow my office to release the voter information requested to the federal commission,” Hargett, a Republican, said in a statement. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican, is serving as vice chairman of Trump’s recently created Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. In a letter sent Wednesday to election officials across the country, Kobach asked for their recommendations on any changes in federal law in areas like ensuring integrity of elections. But Kobach also said that “for the Commission to fully analyze vulnerabilities and issues related to voter registration and voting, I am requesting that you provide to the Commission the publicly available voter roll data for Tennessee, including, if publicly…

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