Eleven people have been arrested in two Middle Tennessee counties after a months-long election fraud investigation, authorities announced Tuesday.
The arrests, which occurred in Sumner and Montgomery Counties, were sparked by an election registration scandal in Sumner County, officials said.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation received reports that 15 convicted felons had been unlawfully voting in Sumner County elections between 2020 and 2022 and launched an investigation into the allegations in late January, according to a press release.
Four of the convicted felons that were reportedly involved in the scandal had died prior to the investigation, TBI officials said.
Investigators later learned that the 11 remaining suspects had registered to vote in Sumner County after they had received at least one felony conviction.
Each of the suspects had signed documents saying they had not been convicted of a felony, the release said.
It was not immediately clear which elections the suspects voted in, who they voted for or what the motive was for the alleged fraud.
Indictments charging each of the 11 suspects with one count of Illegal Registration or Voting and one count of False Entries on Official Registration or Election Documents were returned by a Sumner County Grand Jury on May 10.
Officials with the TBI and Sumner County Sheriff’s Office carried out the arrests in recent days, booking the following people into the Sumner County Jail on $5,000 bond:
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Gregory Blackmon, 62, of Clarksville
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Antione Bridges, 45, of Cottontown
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Bradley Crowell, 32, of Hendersonville
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Jerry Dodd, 49, of Portland
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Terry Ewin, 58, of Gallatin
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Shannon Holt, Sr., 55, of Gallatin
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James McGee, 59, of Hendersonville
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Rita Poindexter, 64, of Gallatin
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Larry Russell, Sr.. 69, of Gallatin
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Ladasha Warfield, 36, of Gallatin
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Bobby Williams, 62, of Portland
Katie Nixon can be reached at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TN officials arrest 11 in Sumner, Montgomery counties election scandal
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