2010 Tennessee Code
Title 2 - Elections
Chapter 1 - General Provisions
2-1-104 - Title definitions.

2-1-104. Title definitions.

(a)  In this title, unless a different meaning is clearly intended:

     (1)  “Armed forces personnel” means members of the army, navy, air force, marine corps, coast guard, environmental science services administration, and public health service of the United States or members of the merchant marine of the United States, and their spouses and dependents;

     (2)  “Ballot” means either a piece of paper or the labeled face of a voting machine prepared by appropriate election officials for voters to use to cast their votes;

     (3)  “Ballot box” means a container in which paper ballots are to be placed after being marked by voters;

     (4)  “Ballot label” means a piece of paper, cardboard or other material which is placed in the ballot frames of a voting machine to make a ballot;

     (5)  “Computerized county” means a county which utilizes a computerized voter registration system which has been approved by the coordinator of elections;

     (6)  “County executive committee” means a political party's authoritative county body which is constituted either under the law or under the rules of the political party;

     (7)  “Election” means a general election for which membership in a political party in order to participate therein is not required;

     (8)  “Election officials” means the officers of elections, judges, voting machine operators, precinct and assistant precinct registrars, and inspectors appointed under this title;

     (9)  “Federal election” means an election held to:

          (A)  Nominate a political party's candidate for congress or its candidates for elector for president and vice president;

          (B)  Determine the presidential preference of a political party's members; or

          (C)  Choose a member of congress or electors for president and vice president;

     (10)  “Mail” means first class United States mail, but any higher class of mail may be used when “mail” is specified;

     (11)  “Majority party” means the political party whose members hold the largest number of seats in the combined houses of the general assembly;

     (12)  “Minority party” means the political party whose members hold the second largest number of seats in the combined houses of the general assembly;

     (13)  “Newspaper of general circulation” means a publication bearing a title or name, regularly issued at least as frequently as once a week for a definite price, having a second class mailing privilege, being not less than four (4) pages, published continuously during the immediately preceding one-year period, which is published for the dissemination of news of general interest and is circulated generally in the political subdivision in which it is published and in which notice is to be given. In any county where a publication fully complying with this definition does not exist, the state coordinator of elections is authorized to determine the appropriate publication to receive any required election notice. A newspaper which is not engaged in the distribution of news of general interest to the public, but which is primarily engaged in the distribution of news of interest to a particular group of citizens, is not a “newspaper of general circulation”;

     (14)  “Political party” means an organization which nominates candidates for public office;

     (15)  “Poll book” means the official record book of an election containing poll lists;

     (16)  “Poll list” means the official list of the names of voters in an election. In computerized counties, such a list may consist of a computer printout of registered voters who voted in that election;

     (17)  “Polling place” means the room or rooms where voters apply to vote and mark and cast their ballots;

     (18)  “Precinct” means a geographic unit for the holding of elections having one (1) polling place;

     (19)  “Precinct-based optical scanner” means an optical ballot scanner that is located in the precinct and into which optical scan voter-verified paper ballots, marked either by hand by the voter or with the assistance of a device, are inserted to count the voter verified paper ballot;

     (20)  “Primary election” means an election held for a political party for the purpose of allowing members of that party to select a nominee or nominees to appear on the general election ballot;

     (21)  “Protective counter” means a voting machine counter which cannot be reset and which records the total number of movements of the operating lever of the machine;

     (22)  “Public counter” means a voting machine counter which shows the total number of movements of the operating lever of the machine at any point in time during an election;

     (23)  “Question” means a statement of a constitutional amendment or any other proposition submitted to the vote of the people;

     (24)  “Registered voter” means a qualified voter who has fulfilled the registration requirements of this title;

     (25)  “Regular August election” means the election held on the first Thursday in August of every even-numbered year;

     (26)  “Regular November election” means the election held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in every even-numbered year;

     (27)  “Resident” has the meaning given in §§ 2-2-102 and 2-2-122;

     (28)  “State election” means an election held to:

          (A)  Nominate a political party's candidates for state, county or district offices; or

          (B)  Choose state, county or district officers;

     (29)  “Statewide election” means an election held to nominate or to choose officers elected by or to submit a question to the voters of the entire state;

     (30)  “Statewide political party” means either:

          (A)  A political party at least one (1) of whose candidates for an office to be elected by voters of the entire state in the past four (4) calendar years has received a number of votes equal to at least five percent (5%) of the total number of votes cast for gubernatorial candidates in the most recent election of governor; or

          (B)  For one (1) year after petitioning successfully, a political party which has a membership equal to at least two and one-half percent (2.5%) of the total number of votes cast for gubernatorial candidates in the most recent election of governor as shown by petitions to establish a political party filed with the coordinator of elections and signed by registered voters as members of the party and certified as to registration of the signers by the county election commissions of the counties where the signers are residents;

     (31)  “Top race” means the presidential race, if the presidential race is on the ballot, the governor's race, if the governor's race is on the ballot, and in addition to these races, if other races are on the ballot, the race that receives the most votes as determined by the unofficial machine vote count for each political subdivision election held and on the ballot;

     (32)  “Voter-verified paper ballot” means a permanent, individual paper ballot that is marked either manually by the voter or with the assistance of a device and verified by the voter as correctly reflecting the voter's intent, before the voter's vote is counted by the precinct-based optical scanner; and

     (33)  “Voting system” means a precinct-based optical scanner.

(b)  Where any act or section of the Tennessee Code refers to chapters or sections of the former title 2 of the Tennessee Code which was repealed effective January 15, 1973, such references are deemed references to the appropriate chapters or sections of this title.

[Acts 1972, ch. 740, §§ 1, 5; 1973, ch. 327, § 1; 1975, ch. 72, § 5; T.C.A., § 2-104; Acts 1980, ch. 725, §§ 1, 2; 1983, ch. 450, § 1; 1990, ch. 727, §§ 1, 2; 2008, ch. 1108, § 2.]