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 Chief District Judge Kevin Sharp called the procedure by which the
state counted votes for the measure, Amendment 1, "fundamentally
unfair." He said it violated equal protection and due process rights
guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.
"As a remedy, the Court will order a recount of the 2014 Election
solely in relation to Amendment 1, but defer ruling on the question
of whether the election on Amendment 1 should be voided," Sharp
wrote in a 52-page decision.
Amendment 1 was approved by 53 percent of the vote after one of the
most costly election campaigns in Tennessee history.
 Approval cleared the way for Republican Governor Bill Haslam to sign
into law bills setting a 48-hour abortion waiting period and
requiring clinics performing 50 or more abortions a year to be
licensed as ambulatory surgical centers.
Eight voters, including Tennessee Planned Parenthood board members,
filed the federal lawsuit a few days after the election.
Sharp said that the 2014 vote was not done in accordance with an
article of the state constitution that factors in the number of
votes cast for governor in determining whether an amendment has been
approved.
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Votes against Amendment 1 were not given the same weight as those in
favor of it, he wrote.
Sharp's ruling came a day after a judge in Tennessee's Williamson
County Circuit Court found that the state had followed proper
vote-counting procedures for Amendment 1.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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