Well, Davidson County Election Commission, of course, but sometimes alliteration is just too tempting.

No one has yet pinned down the culprit who was in charge of the two laptops that went missing with the entire county’s voter registration information. However, recent history is instructive. The Davidson County Election Commission has a recent past of problems, and there’s always been one person in the middle of them: Kathy Deshotels. It was Deshotel’s mistakes and “sloppy work” (those would be the words of Harriet Hill, a long time commission employee, made when she was under oath) that made her stand out. Hill apparently also said “anytime any problem comes up, Miss Deshotels has been in the middle of the situation.”

In 2004, the Nashville Scene did a great investigative piece on the subject, still available here.

The last time mistakes were made, it was Michael McDonald, the commission administrator before Ray Barrett took the job, who was eventually terminated for Deshotel’s incompetence. McDonald tried to terminate her, but she sued and won her job back. Among her on-the-job highlights were violating federal law by sending out absentee ballots a week late, and failing to update and remove 37,000 inactive voters from the Davidson County voter database. According to forty year veteran Harriet Hill, she was also quite adept at spreading “untruths”.

During the previous shenanigans, it appeared that she would have been the information services person at the commission, which leads me to believe if she is still there (which I believe she is) Deshotel probably would have been in charge of securing those laptops. Perhaps the media ought to be calling her and asking for her job description. And too, checking out what has to be a really, really thick personnel file.