NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Federal authorities stopped a suspicious package that had been mailed to the Tennessee Division of Elections before it could arrive, Secretary of State Tre Hargett announced Thursday, the second day of early voting for the Nov. 3 general election.
Hargett said the package was intercepted in transit and never made it to the state elections office. He credited the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service for treating threats against elections seriously. No details have been released about what the package contained or whether anyone is under investigation.
The interception came a day after a Republican running for a state House seat said she and her family were the target of a death threat as early voting got underway on Wednesday.
State officials are also pushing back on a false claim spreading online that a ballot is void if a poll worker writes on it. Hargett posted a rebuttal Wednesday, stating that an administrative notation by an election official or poll worker does not disqualify a ballot in Tennessee. County election offices in Davidson and Montgomery counties have taken calls from voters worried about the rumor.
Voters who are uneasy about a mark on their ballot, or who make a mistake filling it out, can ask for a fresh one and start over. The ACLU of Tennessee says a voter may request as many as three replacement ballots.
More than 3.9 million Tennesseans are eligible to vote this fall. Early voting runs through Thursday, Oct. 29. Anyone hoping to vote by mail has until Oct. 24 to ask for an absentee ballot. On Election Day, polls are open for up to 12 hours.
The ballot is longer than usual. Along with the race for governor, voters will decide three proposed amendments to the state constitution, each printed with its full text and a summary, so the secretary of state’s office is encouraging voters to review a sample ballot before they go.
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