Not enough provisional ballots for Johnson to beat Smith for House seat

Johnson, left, and Smith, right

UPDATE: Tennessee state House candidate Gloria Johnson has conceded the race for the District 13 seat to Republican incumbent Eddie Smith.

"I'm very glad every vote was counted," she told WBIR 10News Monday afternoon. "I conceded earlier today and called Eddie Smith."

PREVIOUS: Statistically, it doesn’t appear that Gloria Johnson can beat Republican incumbent Eddie Smith to regain the 13
Election officials this morning began counting the provisional ballots that were cast in the race. Of the 597, only 86 came from voters in District 13.

Smith defeated Johnson during the Nov. 8 general election by 154 votes, according to the unofficial final returns. He led by 50.35 percent to her 49.65 percent.

Although the outcome of the election appears set, officials will continue to count the provisional ballots, which Cliff Rodgers, Knox County administrator of elections, said could take another week.

“We’re extremely pleased that we’re able to announce before lunch how many . . . provisional ballots were in that district,” he said. “This helps narrow the focus.”

Elections officials will still have to investigate whether the provisional ballots count. For example, was the voter really from the district and was the person actually registered to vote?

The difference in this year’s race was even closer than the last time they competed, when Smith won by less than 200 votes.

The two squared off in November 2014 when Johnson held the 13th District office and Smith challenged her. Smith ended up winning by less than 200 votes. More than 13,000 ballots were cast in that contest.

Some 22,000 ballots were cast on Nov. 8.

Knox officials to count provisional ballots beginning Monday morning

Smith, to left, and Johnson, on right

Knox County elections officials on Monday will begin counting and investigating the almost 600 provisional ballots cast countywide.

They’ll start at 9 a.m. at the Old Courthouse on Main Street.

From what I understand, they have to get the job completed in two weeks, and it’s going to possibly take two weeks to do it.

They’ll first weed out the ballots cast in the 13^th District state house race, in which incumbent Eddie Smith, a Republican, edged Democrat challengers Gloria Johnson by 154 votes.

Then they’ll have to investigate whether the votes should count. (i.e. were the people registered to vote, blah, blah, etc.)

Johnson, who acknowledges that her chances of winning are slim, said she wants everyone to know that every vote counts.

The county’s election commission will certify the election on Nov. 28.

Johnson seeks ballot info in tight state House race against Smith

Tennessee State House candidate Gloria Johnson has sued to get information about provisional ballots still being counted from Tuesday’s election in Knox County.

The Knoxville Democrat is seeking through an injunction in Knox County Chancery Court to get the names and addresses of those who filed provisional ballots from elections administrator Cliff Rodgers. Attorney John Eldridge filed the paperwork Wednesday afternoon.

Johnson seeks to notify the 597 people who filed provisional ballots that they have until 4:30 p.m. Thursday to submit proper identification to ensure their ballots are valid.

The ballots are the last  that need to be counted – and Johnson argues they’re key to her 13^th District  race.

Republican incumbent Eddie Smith beat Johnson by 154 votes in early and election-day returns.

The only thing left to count are the provisional ballots, which include submitted forms from voters who may have lacked proper ID while voting Tuesday.

Election officials say it could be days before the provisional ballots are finalized.

Smith declares victory, Johnson won't concede in tight state House race

Johnson, left, and Smith, right

With all Knox County precinct returns counted, state Rep. Eddie Smith led Democratic challenger Gloria Johnson by 154 votes, unofficial final returns showed.

With more than 22,000 total votes counted, Smith led by 50.35 percent to Johnson's 49.65 percent, according to Knox County Election Commission returns.

The difference in the race was even closer than the last time they competed, when Smith won by less than 200 votes.

But returns from neither provisional ballots nor absentee ballots have been released. Absentee ballots were to be counted by 11:30 p.m. or midnight Tuesday. And provisional ballots may not be known until Wednesday.

"We know this much so far," Smith said Tuesday night at GOP headquarters at the Crowne Plaza. "We won early voting and we know we won election day, and I know this, we have great people at the election commission who are working extremely hard."

Outcome to Smith-Johnson race might not be known on election night

There's a good chance that next Tuesday we might not know who won the 13th District state House race between incumbent and Republican Eddie Smith and Democrat challenger Gloria Johnson.

That's because of the provisional ballots, which could play a deciding factor in one of the most contentious local races this cycle.

The last time these two faced on in 2014, Smith won by just under 200 votes.


"It was a very close race and it was a midterm election, so we didn't have that many people voting,” Johnson told WBIR 10News. “This time, hopefully, we'll have a lot more people voting."

If the race comes that close this time around, Knox County might not know who actually won until weeks after the election.

Provisional ballots are paper ballots that are used when officials have questions about a voter's eligibility. Those votes go to a separate pile to be investigated, and then – if the voter is determined to be eligible – counted after Election Day.

After the 2012 presidential election, the county issued 396 rejection letters for provisional ballots for a number of reasons, including identification problems, failure to register or because the person who voted was a felon.

Chris Davis, assistant administrator of elections for Knox County, said the county no longer has records of how many residents voted through provisional ballots. Under state law, the county only has to keep the records for 22 months.

However, he said anecdotally, “We know from election to election that more than half of the provisional ballots won’t be counted.”

Though more than half of all provisional ballots are usually ineligible, those votes could make all the difference for races as close as this one.

"Votes matter. People staying home can affect an election, and people choosing to skip a portion of the ballot can affect an election," said Smith.

Eddie Smith, Gloria Johnson state House campaign turns 'clownish'

The contest for the 13^th District state House seat has gotten nasty.

Late last week, the state GOP (or whoever – they’re the ones who called me anyway) put out a new mailer that appears to depict Democrat challenger Gloria Johnson as a clown and says her “liberal agenda” is “just as scary as creepy clowns.”

Uhg.

Anyhoo, Johnson, issued a statement this morning denouncing the “false attacks being made by special interest groups” and called on incumbent Eddie Smith, a Republican, “to condemn the smears.”

“Tennesseans for Student Success claims to be an education focused non-profit but they have spent tremendous resources launching negative attacks that have nothing to do with education, against life-long teacher and candidate for state representative, Gloria Johnson, the statement said.  Also this week, the Tennessee Republican House Caucus began a negative attack ad against Johnson making absolutely untrue claims.”

Added Johnson: “These special interest smears against our campaign are sign of desperation because they know our message of investing in schools, making health care more affordable and strengthening the middle class is winning. Eddie Smith should tell his big money friends to pack up their dirty tricks and get out of Knoxville. Volunteer families don’t want elections bought by special interests, they want fair elections and clean campaigning.”

Johnson has scheduled a press conference at 2 p.m. today at 311 Morgan St.

As always, send over your political stuff for publication consideration.

TN House candidates Smith, Johnson face off on 'Inside Tennessee'

Gloria Johnson, left, and Eddie Smith, right

The two candidates again facing off in the battle for the 13th District state House seat are the focus of this Sunday’s edition of “Inside Tennessee” on WBIR 10News.

Incumbent and Republican Eddie Smith and Democrat challenger Gloria Johnson will sit down with reporters during the 30-minute political and public affairs program that kicks off at 9:30 a.m.

Smith and Johnson will discuss a number of issues including: health care, education, the state of the roads in Tennessee, and whether a gas tax increase is warranted.

The 13th District encompasses parts of north and south Knoxville and includes more than 62,000 residents.

Early voting has already started for the Nov. 8 general election.

Johnson won the seat in 2012, succeeding Democrat Harry Tindell, who held the seat for 22 years. Smith defeated her in 2014 by just under 200 votes.

Local politicos expect this race to be the closest of all the state House races in the Knox County area.

Sunday’s panel features moderator John Becker, WBIR reporters Mike Donila, John North and Mary Scott.

Johnson to seek state House seat

Former state Rep. Gloria Johnson today announced that she plans to run for the 13th District state House seat she held for two years prior to Republican Eddie Smith defeating her in 2014.

In a news release issued today, Johnson, a Democrat, focused, in part, on some 280,000 Tennesseans who don't have health care and roughly 100,000 students who "woke up again as special interests try to cut funding form public education."

She said:

Our neighbors deserve a Representative who will wake up every single day, committed with dogged determination to stand up and fight for Tennessee's working families who deserve better. Our children deserve fully funded public education where all kids have an opportunity to succeed, Tennessee's women deserve equal pay for equal work, and our 280,000 uninsured neighbors should not lose everything they have worked hard for just because they get sick.

The state primary is set for early August.

As always, send your political stuff to the ol' Porch for publication consideration.

Just the facts ma'am: Was bogus BOE 'ethics violation' a political ploy?

Hoo-Haw, man they got some funny stuff going on over there on the school system’s side of county government. Heh.

So, get this: The Knox County Board of Education was set to meet on March 5 to talk about “allegations of a potential ethics violation and consideration of possible action and recommendations.”

The supposed violator? BOE member Mike McMillan.

The reason? For being transparent.

Hahahahahaha. Naw, I’m not kidding.

McMillian forwarded a PUBLIC RECORD to a newspaper reporter and a state representative.

Yet, South Knoxville parent Kristi Kristy (and by default BOE member and BOE Ethics Chairwoman Indya Kincannon) wanted to conduct kangaroo court.

However, on Friday the school system sent over a public notice that said the committee meeting “has been canceled due to the withdrawal of the complaint.”

Well wait a minute!

According to the News Sentinel, Kristi Kristy “decided not to file an official complaint.” (KNS story right here if you have money for a paywall.)

Huh? So was a complaint filed or not? And if one wasn’t filed, then why would Kincannon schedule the meeting?  That doesn’t make sense. Right?

Surely this wasn’t a political move against McMillan, the one BOE member who has not fallen in line with the rest of the board?  

Naw. No way!

Heh. Right. This whole thing stinks. The ethics committee isn’t supposed to even bother with these matters unless the chair receives a complaint that is “in writing and SIGNED UNDER OATH by the person making the complaint . . . .”

You can find the BOE’s Code of Ethics right smack here. 

However, the committee was going to go ahead and discuss it anyway. Without a sworn statement!

OK, so enough rambling. Let’s get to what was in that PUBLIC RECORD and what McMillan did and didn’t do.

Without further ado, it’s time for some Porch factoids:

FACT: On Dec. 6 at 3:11 p.m. Kristi Kristy sent District 9 BOE member Pam Trainor an email asking that it be sent to the Board and Superintendent Jim McIntyre. In the email, Kristy touted the good superintendent’s awesomeness and was upset that someone depicted him as Adolf Hitler in a now-viral YouTube video in which “McIntyre” raged about teacher concerns and expressed dismay that he might have to go back to teaching himself. You can find the video right here by the way.

FACT: Kristy wanted Trainor to redact her name from the email because she was concerned that teachers would like go over to her house and/or harass her, or some such nonsense.

FACT: At this point said email was NOT a public record (according to the county law department).

FACT: It BECAME a public record once Trainor forwarded it on – as requested by Kristy – to the school board members and once they received it.

FACT: Pam Trainor did NOT redact Kristy’s name.

FACT: Shopper reporter Betty Bean and State Rep. Gloria Johnson asked McMillian for a copy of that PUBLIC RECORD later in the day and he honored their OPEN RECORDS REQUEST.

FACT: This whole thing is silly. If Kristy wants to be mad at someone, she should be mad at Trainor for not taking her name off the email.

FACT: These facts come from PUBLIC RECORDS. And NO, I didn’t get them from McMillan. Heh.

So, click right smack here for a set of documents that includes an email from Kincannon to Kristy that says the ethics committee will hold a hearing despite the fact that there was no signed-under-oath complaint; and two different emails from Kristy to BOE member Lynne Fugate – one that basically blames McMillan for all the world’s problems, and another that, just. . .  wow.

Further, for another set of bad boys, click right smack here for the original email that caused this whole mess AND a Jan. 10 letter from Knox County Law Director Richard “Bud” Armstrong telling Kristy that she doesn’t have a case! (Hey, I had to get the factoids from somewhere.)

Now, if the BOE really wants to look into a violation, then the board should address a potential solicitation violation committed by a certain political candidate it happens to support.

Kaousias to join election commish

State Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, has nominated Tammy Kaousias, to replace Dennis Francis on the Knox County Election Commission. She's expected to get the gig.

In addition, official are set to reappoint the other members: Democrat Cassandra Stuart and Republicans Chris Heagerty, Bob Bowman, Rob McNutt.

Francis had long said he didn't plan to seek reappointment.

I don't know a whole lot about Kaousias, other than a couple folks I talked to spoke highly of her. She's apparently a yoga enthusiast and a long-time attorney, who used to handle legal affairs for Ruby Tuesday and now operates a solo practice.

She graduated from the University of Tennessee.

“I've known Tammy for over 15 years,” Bowman said. “She's very bright and a hardworking attorney, and I look forward to working with her on the commission.”

The commission hasn't set a date to meet yet, but will get together before April 19. At that point, they'll pick officers and select a county elections administrator. (Hint: It's going to be Cliff Rodgers.)

Johnson still wins the House seat

The Knox County Election Commission has wrapped up counting absentee ballots and it doesn't appear that the extra votes changed the outcome to any election, including the closest one for the 13^th state House District seat, according to the unofficial results.

Late last night, Administrator of Elections Cliff Rodgers said the county had about 5,800 voters cast ballots by mail, so not everything would be complete until today. 

The Central Absentee County Board is now done counting, according to the Knox County Election Commission's website.

The closest race of the night – before absentee ballots came in – was the contest between Democrat Gloria Johnson and Republican Gary Loe, who were vying for the state House seat. Johnson held a 395-vote lead.

That race had 625 absentee votes and Johnson's lead dropped to 296.

Still counting votes, Loe complains

Getting a little late into the night and my main man down at the election office just cranked out another news release, letting folks know that even though all the county's precincts have reported, the Central Absentee County Board will be counting ballots late into the night.

“We had approximately 5,800 voters cast ballots by mail,” said Administrator of Elections Cliff Rodgers. “We hope to finish counting late tonight and into the early morning hours if necessary.”

On the surface, about the only local election this appears to have any possible – and really, it's super slim – chance to affect would be the contest between Democrat Gloria Johnson, who as of right now, beat Republican Gary Loe by 400 votes for the 13^th District state House of Representatives seat.

When questioned by a reporter about the race, Loe asked if this “was another ploy” by KNS Editor Jack McElroy to influence the race.

Yeah, dude, all the strings lead back to the puppet master's corner office at News Sentinel Drive. Cause, you know, Jack stayed up late, hoping to influence a race that – even if a Democrat wins – will have absolutely no affect on state-wide decision-making cause there's like a gazillion Republicans in the Tennessee Legislature and about three Democrats.

Seriously, it's sad that some people really believe this crap.

But I digress.

Knox County election officials, in the release, said they were pleased with the quick tally of the election day precincts. The final tally of all votes cast was done at 9:56 p.m., which election officials say “was the fastest tabulation of election day results for a presidential election in memory.”