Indictments coming

Voter fraud in upper east Tennessee?! Wow. You expect the stories from Memphis or Shelby county. They are legendary. But upper east? No way!

Way.

It is now coming out this is a state wide problem that will show as more and more rampant as investigations are complete. This is one example of why it is important Republicans lead. Republicans have yelled and screamed about this for years but the old Democrat leadership had a lock on the election commission officials. We got nowhere. With the switch in power, Republicans took over the leadership for about half the county election commissions and started cleaning house. This is one story from one small county but it wont be the only one.

Or the last.

From the Bristol Herald Courier....

BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. – Sullivan County elections officials are building a case against a group of 25 to 75 people they claim committed voter fraud during last year’s election cycle.....

Booher said local election commissions have a duty to ensure their voter roles are up to date. That means purging the lists on a regular basis of people who have died, moved – or lost their voting rights.....

So over the summer, his office compiled a list of people who were convicted of felonies in state and federal courts since the 1990s, but who have not yet had their rights restored. Comparing the lists to voter roles, Goins said, they found 13,000 people who had similar names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth.
“When I first came in to office [February], this is something that I’ve wanted to do,“ Goins said.
In July, Goins sent his list to local election officials, and told them to focus their efforts on what he called “hard matches,“ registered voters who had the exact identifying information as convicted felons....

...He is focusing his efforts on the third group of “hard matches” – the 25 to 75 people he said lied on their registration forms when they failed to check the box indicating they were convicted felons and then cast ballots anyway......

...If Wells does decide to file charges, he won’t be the first. Goins said a grand jury in Lauderdale County, Tenn., has indicted nine people on voter fraud charges based on the information on their voter registration forms.

“I expect there will be more,“ Goins said.

I also expect more. A LOT more.