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Hamilton County: Democrats, GOP prepare poll watchers for Election Day

By: Matt Wilson
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JoAnne Favors

Hamilton County Democrats and Republicans are planning to have poll watchers posted at voting locations around the county on election day, and depending on party affiliation, those watchers will be tasked with differing jobs.

For Democrats, the key is making sure all eligible voters get a chance to enter the voting booth, said Rick Wilson, a professor of political science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dr. Wilson spoke to 40 or so potential Democratic poll watchers at a Monday training session.

“Right now, the biggest problem you’ll have on Election Day is people challenging people who have a right to vote,” he told the mostly black audience. “They’re probably going to do it in African-American precincts.”

Republican poll watchers will be on the lookout to make sure the people entering the polls are actually eligible to vote and are in the right polling place, said Connie Weathers, chairwoman of the Hamilton County Republican Party.

“Obviously, we want the process to go correctly regardless of political persuasion,” she said.

Ms. Weathers said the county GOP would soon be training its poll watchers.

“There will be a countywide effort for all the precincts,” she said.

State law allows for each political party with at least one candidate in the election to post two poll watchers at a polling place. The poll watchers may not interact directly with voters or watch poll workers assist voters, the law states.

But poll watchers may protest the conduct of officials through Democratic and Republican judges present at the polls, inspect ballots and make sure ballots are handled correctly.

County Elections Administrator Bud Knowles has said he plans to have 80 percent of each precinct’s ballots in each polling place at the beginning of the day.

State Rep. JoAnne Favors, D-Chattanooga, who hosted the training session for Democratic poll watchers, told those assembled to make sure they position themselves so they can hear everything that’s going on at their respective polling places.

“Don’t let them stand you in a corner,” she said.

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