By Bill Grubb

ROGERSVILLE - Paper ballots were abandoned as the primary method of voting in Hawkins County years ago but a new state law means they will be making a come back by November 2010.
    According to Hawkins County Administrator of Elections Patricia Lumpkins, the new election law was discussed at the recent Tennessee Association of County Election Officials meeting in Nashville
    During the session Brook K. Thompson, State Coordinator of Elections, announced new legislation has been passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Phil Bredesen that requires all voting systems in Tennessee to be paper ballots with precinct-based optical scanners by the November 2010 election. 
    "This will leave a paper trial that many voters have requested," according to Lumpkins.
    Rather than immediately proceed to a voting machine, a voter will be given a paper ballot to manually fill in an oval or square beside their choice for candidate.  When the ballot is complete the voter will then take their ballot and place it into an optical scanner that will record the voters choice. Each Precinct will be supplied with one scanner, Lumpkins explained.
    Although the system will not be in use in Hawkins County until after the 2008 election cycle, voting systems that meet the new standards are already in operation in Tennessee.
    Under the new law each County is required to conduct mandatory hand count audit of the top race on the ballot.