Authored By Alina Hunter-Grah
A boundary dispute between the State of Tennessee and Hamilton County did not affect recent local election results, Administrator of Elections Kerry Steelman said Wednesday. The issue could have affected the State House District 28 and Hamilton County Board of Education District 5 races. According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the issue, discovered on August 1, came from discrepancies between the county lines drawn by the state and the ones drawn locally in 2011. The discrepancy only affected early voters because the commission made corrected ballots for the rest of affected voters. All 43 early votes were still counted. Only 48 of 282 possible affected voters placed a ballot. Because the candidates in each of these races won by more than 1,000 votes, the Commission determined that the discrepancy had little impact. “The margin of victory for candidates in District 28 and District 5 far exceeded the number of affected voters,” Steelman said. Officials say they were happy that the outcome of the issue was resolved. “While we don’t ever want to have any issue that impacts voters, we were able to isolate [this issue],” Steelman said. Alina Hunter-Grah is a contributing writer. She is a graduate of The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she received a bachelor’s degree in communication with a minor in political science. Alina has over three years of journalism experience including time spent with CNN and 2nd & Church, a magazine based in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Alina at ahuntergrah@gmail.com or on Twitter @alinahuntergrah.
