ANDERSON COUNTY, Tenn. — Republican Tennessee Representative John Ragan is contesting his party's primary election results in Anderson County.
Ragan claims he lost the election because he said more than 1,000 voters cast ballots in the primary election who are not "bona fide" Republicans. He said the voters in question have previously only voted for Democratic candidates and have broken the state's "bona fide" voting laws.
The last time a case like this was filed was in 2008. However, Ragan cites a vague recent law which makes it difficult to verify his claims. The new law has not yet been enforced and requires voters to declare a party affiliation to vote in a primary election. However, Tennessee does not require voters to be affiliated with a party when they register to vote, allowing them to cast ballots for any party or candidate.
Mark Stephens, the Anderson County Administrator of Elections, said it's also difficult to tell who may violate the state's "bona fide" party member law because people may want to change parties in good faith.
"You don't really know what the voter's intent is. A voter may have switched over in to a primary, it may not have been something they had been affiliated with before. But then again, how do you determine who they actually did vote for? It's very difficult," he said.
A lawsuit challenging the state's "bona fide" party membership law was also revised and refiled in May by two prominent Knoxvillians from the Democratic and Republican parties.
Ragan lost the Republican primary election to Richard Scarbrough, a former Clinton police chief who received thousands of dollars in donations from the Team Kids PAC. It supported candidates who indicated they may support universal school voucher proposals.
His appeal will go before the Republican Executive Committee for a hearing on Sept. 7.
Scarbrough is currently expected to run against Democratic candidate Anne Backus for the District 33 House seat.