NASHVILLE (AP) - Davidson County Election Administrator Albert Tieche has hired an attorney to help him respond to a report on the commission's management of last year's elections.

Problems included failing to open the polls on a Saturday during early voting; machines that sometimes defaulted to the Republican ballot during the primary; and shortages of poll workers, printed forms, parking and phone lines on Election Day.

Tieche told The Tennessean (http://tnne.ws/11wT1xK) a draft of the state's report frequently focuses on him. He declined to make it available, saying it's not a public record until he and the commission have a chance to respond.

Tieche said he didn't think the state had ever examined any county in that way.

All three Republican commissioners and one of two Democrats were replaced by state lawmakers recently after the commission considered a plan to investigate the citizenship status of all foreign-born voters.< /P>

The new commission met for the first time on Friday, and Tieche revealed that he had hired a lawyer at that meeting.

Some commissioners seemed to be caught off guard by that admission, since the Metro Law Department regularly advises the agency. The commission ultimately voted to require Tieche and his attorney to run their response by Metro attorneys before sending it to the state.

Metro Nashville conducted its own audit of the commission recently. The city found some problems but concluded that the agency has controls in place to ensure the integrity of elections.