Nashville Public Radio invited the public on into our studio on October 6, 2026, for a nonpartisan conversation about redistricting, ballot and voting machine integrity and how to deal with potential threats at polling locations during the midterm elections.
The event “Does My Vote Even Count?” was for community members to get information and ask questions of Marianna Bacallao, Nashville Public Radio Power and Equity Reporter, and John Richardson, Administrator of Elections for Davidson County. LaTonya Turner, Nashville Public Radio News Editor, led the conversation. Here are some of the questions that our audience asked.
How should I prepare before going to the polls to vote?
Richardson: I like acronyms and four letters that come to mind when it comes to voting: A, B, C, D.
“A” stands for bring the appropriate identification to the vote, and so that would be your Tennessee ID, which is your Tennessee driver’s license, or your federal ID, which would be like a passport.
“B” would be your ballot. Each and every voter in Davidson County’s household gets a sample ballot in the mail. Davidson County is unique. By Tennessee election law, We have to put the ballot in a newspaper of general circulation. We’re not required to send these out to everybody, but we do.
“C” is check your canary yellow voter registration card, which is very important to figure out where you vote if you want to vote on election day.
“D” is determine how you’re going to vote. Whether it’s early, absentee or on election date, all votes count the same. And it’s important to have a plan.
Tennessee election law allows for you to make notes and bring it to vote, or use your app on your phone for GoVoteTN and mark those choices on there and bring in with you. You cannot use (your phone) to record or talk; you can’t do politicking while you’re in the booth, you can’t take pictures, those are all illegal.
Will federal agents or law enforcement be at polling places?
Richardson: It’s illegal… to have armed people at polling locations, because that’s gonna run the risk of discouraging people from voting, and we don’t want that.
We have 178 polling locations all across Davison County on election day. At each and every one of those locations, the officer of elections has been trained as to what to do. So, I brought my Tennessee Election Law book… and if you go to Tennessee Code Annotated 2-7-103-C, it says “No police or other law enforcement officer may come nearer to the entrance to a polling place than ten feet (10′) or enter the polling place except at the request of the officer of elections or the county election commission or to make an arrest or to vote.” So, it’s like when you’re at the airport– you see something, you say something. If you’re out and you’re voting and that doesn’t look right, let the officer of elections know. They will, in turn, call us at the (election commission) and we’ll have a conversation with the appropriate authorities… to to fix what is going on.
There’s also another group with this election in particular called the Guardians of Democracy. This is a group of attorneys that have come together… to support voters, and they also will notify us and let us know what’s going on.
Bacallao: There can be experiences where people tend to jump to some sort of nefarious conclusion, like my ballot was rigged when that is usually not the case. And if there is a mistake with your ballot, as long as you don’t like submit it…. you tell a poll worker before it goes through, because once it goes, it’s finalized.
Richardson: At that point, you say, look, I didn’t mean to vote for that person. Can I change it? And the answer is yes. They’ll take that ballot and they’ll destroy it and they… put it in an envelope and we’re going to hold onto it for 22 months per Tennessee law.
Has Tennessee voters’ information been shared with the Trump administration? What was shared?
Richardson: Yes, the information was shared. I would encourage you to reach out to the (Tennessee) coordinator of elections office to have a conversation as to the scope of what was shared… I represent here in Davidson County. We go by what the state says. And so when the state does something, then they’re complying with what they believe was appropriate within the law.
Bacallao: I believe you are able to request what information was shared.
Richardson: That’s correct. That’s called open records request and you can go through the Metro Clerk’s Office in Davidson County… or from the (TN Department of State).
Does voter fraud really occur?
Richardson: There is so much accuracy, so much work to make sure that the (voting) machines run properly. If a machine is not working, we take it out of commission and we set it aside and then we have folks that fly in and then they fix the machines, and we verify it. Before we have an election… each and every piece of equipment — which is close to 600 pieces of machinery — we run an (test) election through it, and then we verify to make sure that the machine works and everything’s accurate. If anything doesn’t look right, we take (the machine) out of commission and we fix it. So there’s a lot of things that happen behind the scenes to make sure that you have confidence when you go to vote.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM