Flock cameras remain active as county weighs legal risks
by Ben Pounds
Anderson County Sheriff Russell Barker watches for the results, also displayed above him, of a vote for whether or not to keep the county’s two working Flock cameras running. At left is Commissioner Shannon Gray. - Ben Pounds
Two Anderson County Flock license-plate reader cameras remain in operation despite the county law director’s determination that the contract covering them is invalid.
The County Commission voted 9-6 on Monday (Oct. 19) against a proposal to pause the use of the county’s two functioning Flock cameras.
The vote means the cameras will remain in use for now, despite questions about the contract’s validity.
The county’s Budget Committee will hear from Law Director James Brooks on Thursday, Nov. 5, about whether the county could face legal action from Flock if it does not ratify the contract, and what that action might entail.
The meeting will take place in Room 312 of the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton.
Brooks has said the contract renewal, executed by an Anderson County Sheriff’s Office operations captain on Dec. 20, 2023, had not been reviewed by the Budget Committee or approved by the County Commission.
Voting machines are set up at the early voting site in the Anderson County Government office in the Anderson Crossing Center in Norris, as seen from the public area of the county clerk’s office. - G. Chambers Williams III
With nearly a week gone by, early voting for the Nov. 3 general election in Anderson County and statewide reportedly has outpaced the midyear balloting for 2022, with just over a week left to go.
The deadline for in-person early voting is next Thursday, Oct. 29, but the deadline for turning in a request for an absentee ballot is this coming Saturday, Oct. 24, said Mark Stephens, the Anderson County elections administrator.
Those wanting to vote absentee may download the application from the county’s election website, acelection.com.
So far, as of the end of Saturday, Oct. 17, a total of 3,846 people had voted early either by machine (3,676) or by paper ballot (170). That compares with 2,825 who voted in the first four days of early voting in 2022, according to the Tennessee Secretary of State’s website – an increase of 36.14% from four years ago.
Secretary of State Tre Hargett visited the early voting site at Oak Ridge History Museum on Thursday Oct. 15. - Ben Pounds
As early voting continued in the afternoon, Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett came to visit the early voting site at Oak Ridge History Museum on Thursday Oct. 15.
Hargett said he was trying to visit multiple voting locations during this early voting period.
“Number one, we want to thank the poll workers who make these elections happen,” he said. “We can have great laws. We can have great leadership at the local level like Mark Stevens, but if we don’t have poll workers we can’t do this.”
“We want to encourage them to be prepared voters,” he said, pointing to the ballot’s three constitutional amendments that he encouraged people read. “If you’re a registered voter the most fundamental way you can participate in your form of government is by going to vote.”
He praised Stevens and said the poll workers had been friendly in how they moved people through the early voting process and pointed out that they included Democrats and Republicans working together.
“Frankly that’s what I see across the state,” he said.
