Officials caution Tennesseans about out-of-state voter registration, absentee ballot scam calls

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett asked Tennesseans to beware of potential solicitations to register to vote or cast an absentee ballot in another state.

Officials said they were notified that out-of-state organizations solicited Tennessee residents to register to vote and cast an absentee ballot in a state where run-off elections are still pending.

“Voting in a state where you are not entitled to vote is morally and legally wrong,” said Secretary Hargett. “I encourage the citizens of our great state to call our hotline if they receive a solicitation to participate in another state’s election so that we can help preserve the integrity of the vote in other states.”

Anyone who receives a call like this is asked to call the Tennessee Division of Elections’ fraud hotline at 1-877-850-4959.

As Georgia prepares for two runoff elections in the United States Senate, Secretary of State Brad Rafensperger said investigators have not found any evidence of widespread voter fraud in the state, even after completing three separate recounts.

“Well, we’ve never found systemic fraud, not enough to overturn the election. We have over 250 cases right now. We reached out to the governor and asked for additional manpower resources with GBI. It gives us additional reach so we can finish up these investigations quickly,” said Raffesperger in a December 6 interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “Right now, we don’t see anything that would overturn the will of the people here in Georgia.”

Raffensperger also reported the state has recently increased security around voter signature matching with assistance from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

“Well, I just read Governor Scott Walker said on Facebook that this upcoming election, we need to do signature match. Well, we always have been doing signature match. In fact, I strengthened signature match. If you filled out a paper application and that came back with a signature, we matched it then, and then we went ahead when you send in your ballot, we matched again. I’m the first secretary of state to ever stand up an online portal for absentee ballot applications which connects us with photo ID. And so, we’ve strengthened that. We’ve also done training with our election officials through the GBI signature match learning the techniques that they use to verify signatures. So, we’ve strengthened signature match in Georgia, and we’ll continue to do that and follow the law.”

The State of Georgia officially certified the election results for a third time Monday with Biden as the leader by 12,670 votes.

Copyright 2020 WVLT. All rights reserved.