Bills are pending in both houses of the Tennessee legislature to provide that when a partisan primary election result is disputed, the dispute should be resolved by an administrative law judge, not by the political party’s own officials. The bills are SB 2920, by Senator Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville), and HB 3019, by Representative John DeBerry (D-Memphis). The House bill has a hearing on March 2.

The bills are prompted by the 2008 incident when the Democratic Party reversed the results of a primary for State Senate. No one disputes that Rosalind Kurita got the most votes in the Democratic Party, but the Democratic Party ruled that she was not the nominee because it believed some Republicans had voted in the Democratic primary. Kurita’s lawsuit against the party for that is set for oral argument in the 6th circuit on March 24.