SPARKS Flying at the HCEC meeting over Freedom of speech?

SPEECH SLAMMED today at the Election Commission!

Today Commissioners at the Hamilton County Election Commission voted to stop any public comments on their social media accounts.

Rick Toner came to the commission meeting to discuss the Hamilton County Election Commission's Twitter account. HCEC posted a flyer from the Secretary of State claiming that Tennessee is ranked #1 in the country referencing to Elections. Toner wanted to remind the board that there is a lot of controversy surrounding the electronic voting machines and he has a civil right according to the constitution to speak his concerns.

Chairman Mike Walden said there wasn't enough staff to basically censer the media so they will use it to tell the public what they want, but the public may only come into the limited physical meetings to voice concerns. Rick brought up the major concern of how so many people can't get off work to attend the meeting so they use social media to make public comments and voice concerns. Commissioner Chris Clem said there was no way for them to verifying whether the public comments contained fake news.

Another member of the public came up and reminded the commissioners that all the major political twitter accounts including the Governor's office and the White House allow public comments he even said that the official Twitter account of Hamilton County allowed public comments and do not censor the comments. He further said that the public does a great job at self moderation. At one point the attorney for HCEC basically said the public has no right to have speech at the public meeting but maybe they should table the matter. Michael Walden pressed the commissioners forward on the matter and they voted 4-0 against freedom of speech on the social media channels.

One of the audience members reminded the crowd that the more they shut the people out of the process the more people are suspicious of what's happening. Why are unelected people so protective of a electronic machine but have little regard to Civil Rights Violations right in front of their eyes? This is a non-partisan issue which needs to be discussed among the People of Tennessee!

So what do you think? Should you have the freedom of speech (ONLINE OR OFFLINE), or of the press(ONLINE OR OFFLINE), or the right of people to peaceably to assemble (ONLINE OR OFFLINE), and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances(ONLINE OR OFFLINE).

Ghost Patriot