Below is the letter from John Emison the President of Citizens for Home Rule to Hon. Robert E. Cooper, Jr. the Attorney General of the State of Tennessee. We are very fortunate to have such an excellent citizens group to stand up for the property rights of all Tennessee citizens.

Hon. Robert E. Cooper, Jr.
Office of the Attorney General and Reporter
POB 20207
Nashville 37202-0207

Dear Attorney General Cooper:

I am writing you in support of a recent Knox County Commission resolution urging your office to investigate a questionable annexation referendum conducted Nov. 7 in Knox County.

There are troubling issues associated with this referendum and I bring two of these issues to your attention. First, the City of Knoxville contracted to pay $2 million cash to a developer based on the outcome of this so-called referendum. I believe this agreement is an illegal inducement which was clearly intended to affect an election result. Second, the referendum was designed for a single voter who is now admitted to be an employee of a subcontractor to the developer, thus under duress or the appearance of being under duress. There are numerous other serious questions including the legitimacy of the voter’s residency who was a night watchman at the development, and whether the Direct of the Tennessee Division of Elections and/or the Knox County Administer of Elections overstepped their authority.

I urge you to conduct a full, complete, fair, and independent investigation of this matter and to publish the results publicly. Nothing less than the integrity of the election process is at stake. Citizens have every right to expect that neither money nor political bosses taint the ballot box, and at present it seems that both, in fact, did.

Kindest regards,
John A. Emison
President
Citizens for Home Rule, Inc.

Posted in uncategorized on January 8th, 2007 by #9 | RSS 2.0 |