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Tennessee will appeal a federal judge's demand that it recount the ballots in an important abortion vote, after state Attorney General Herbert Slatery's office filed paperwork to begin the process Tuesday afternoon.
The decision to appeal comes days after Judge Kevin Sharp ruled election officials should have thrown out as many as 80,000 votes on an amendment that took abortion rights out of the Tennessee constitution.
Sharp determined only people who had cast votes for governor should also get to vote on the amendment.
Before the election in 2014, some advocates for the abortion amendment had encouraged voters to skip the race for governor. Under Tennessee's peculiar rules, that might have helped its chances of passing.
Tennessee election officials argue everyone who voted should have their ballots counted — even if they didn't make a selection for governor. They say that's been the practice for decades.
A spokesman for the attorney general says how to count the ballots is a question for state courts to decide, not a federal judge.
"Simply put, deciding what vote is required to amend the Tennessee Constitution is a matter of state law to be determined by a Tennessee court," spokesman Harlow Sumerford said in an email. "This has been the State's position from the outset of this litigation."
Shortly before Sharp's decision, a state judge ruled that the ballots had been counted correctly. Sumerford said that ruling upholds the state's long-standing interpretation of the Tennessee constitution.
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