NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WMOT) — Tennessee state elections officials have agreed to stop purging inactive voters from the rolls until after the November election.
Tennessee Democratic Party spokesman Brandon Puttbrese says when the party compared an older voter list with the newly purged list they discovered something odd.
Puttbrese says the state is required to keep a ten-year-long voting history on file for every Tennessee voter. But after the recent purge, 11,000 voter records had been partially or completely erased. Puttbrese explains why that’s important.
“Some voting histories are disappearing, and they are in the last and most recent elections predominately. If these voters appear to not have voted on official records they become prime candidates for being purged.”
Puttbrese says the missing files affect Republicans, Democrats and independent voters, but argues an independent eye is needed to determine why the records were altered.
U.S. District Judge Kevin Sharp says he’ll appoint a special master to investigate.