Voter fraud claims made by Washburn denied

Story by Senior Investigative Reporter Shannon Taylor

Dresden Mayor Jeff Washburn made claims via his personal Facebook account on Thursday, Nov. 3 that there were attempts to commit voter fraud in the Dresden city election. He claimed that the fraud was committed “by attempting to have persons not registered to vote by virtue of the fact they neither live in Dresden nor own property here to register to vote by using a Dresden address.”

Washburn claimed that the person soliciting the “illegal activity intended to benefit a mayoral candidate they support.”

Later Washburn said that he verified with District Attorney General Colin Johnson that he had received a complaint about the illegal activity regarding voter fraud and that he had initiated an investigation into the allegations. Washburn stated that Johnson “did verify that the information I received was the same information he had received and that his office had begun to look into the allegations as I was informed by the person who contacted me.”

Washburn went on to say that “Johnson is aware of who the persons were that were alleged to have been solicited and the person who did the soliciting to unlawfully register. For investigation purposes, this information will not be released pending the results of an investigation.”

Washburn did say that the incident involved a solicitation only and that there wasn’t any verified unlawful registration occur to date that would involve the Weakley County Election Commission office (WCEC).

The Press spoke with Alex Britt at the WCEC, and he stated that, “We have had nothing reported to this office, nor are we aware of anything being reported to the District Attorney’s Office.”

The Press also spoke with the District Attorney’s Office, and they stated that they were unaware of any allegations of voter fraud being investigated.

Washburn contacted the Press today, Nov. 7 and said that he was told by Colin Johnson personally that Johnson had received the same information as he had. “Johnson indicated that he would be investigating it.”

Washburn went on to say that the person that came forward with the information has declined to move forward with anything.

The Press is waiting to hear back from Johnson personally to verify statements made by Washburn.

Voting starts tomorrow at 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Weakley County.