MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The campaign for Marquita Bradshaw and the Democratic Party are suing the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office.
Less than 24 hours before the election, and the two candidates vying for a U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee working to get the word out. They want people to go out and vote on Election Day.
Bill Haggerty made a stop in Memphis on Monday to tell his supporters to go out and vote on Tuesday. While Haggerty was doing that, the Marquita Bradshaw’s camp, well some of their work was in a courtroom.
Bradshaw’s team wants a list of absentee by mail ballots sent out, and the voters who have not sent them back in.
They sued the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office.
“The reason why we need that information is very simple,” Ken Taylor, Bradshaw’s campaign manager, said. “We can go and we can figure out those people who have not voted, we can contact them and tell them, ‘Hey, one go ahead and get your absentee ballot in, you can vote provisionally even if you have requested it and not turned it in. Obviously that is very important to our campaign because we want to make sure people get out to vote.”
Taylor added, “It’s very important for us to get those absentee ballots to make sure that everyone gets an opportunity to have their vote counted.”
WREG-TV spoke Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett about the lawsuit.
“Look, we didn’t get a public records request from the Bradshaw campaign or the state Democratic Party, so that’s the first thing that people need to know,” Hargett said. “The law requires us to provide a list of all voters. The law is silent on providing a list of absentee by mail ballots that haven’t been returned yet and in fact there would be people who have concerns and providing that list.”
At the time this article was written, there was not a ruling by a judge.