Davidson Co. Election Chief Fired, Commissioner Walks With Him

Albert Tieche had hired an attorney after the draft of an unfavorable state report was released.

The man who oversees elections in Nashville has been fired for mismanaging his agency. In protest, one of Davidson County’s five election commissioners resigned at a meeting Thursday afternoon.

Albert Tieche has been under scrutiny by state election officials for a series of mistakes. They range from failing to open polls on a Saturday to going forward with a technology upgrade against the recommendation of state officials.

Ron Buchanan chairs the commission and says Tieche lacks the management skills “to do the job.”

“When somebody keeps making mistakes over and over and over and there’s low morale and the people are losing faith in the election commission because he can’t give me an answer to how many people voted in the Presidential Election, we need to make a change,” Buchanan said after the meeting.

Long-time deputy Joan Nixon has been appointed as the interim election administrator.

After the election commission voted 4-1 to fire him at a special meeting, Tieche declined to comment beyond this.

“One thing I do want to do is thank all those poll workers from November who were short-handed but stuck it out anyway,” Tieche said.

Tieche did have support from commission member Jim Gotto, who handed in a letter of resignation. He accuses the new election commission chairman of coming to the job “with a predetermined agenda to remove Administrator Tieche no matter what.”

Gotto also tells chairman Buchanan, “through all of this you have unfortunately lost my respect and trust.” His letter eludes to political motivations. Read it here. (Commissioner Jim GottoMay 9)