29. A Rigged Election
With all county offices on the line, especially that of Sheriff, the stakes for the 1946 elections were high. The veterans were confident that their GI Nonpartisan Party would sweep to victory. However, the incumbents were equally confident that they would win: they knew that who counts the votes matters more than who votes, so all they had to do was control the ballot boxes.
Thus, the election hinged on poll watchers: Sheriff’s deputies for the incumbents, and veterans for the challengers. Trouble began when a black man tried to vote at an Athens precinct, only for deputies to shoot him on the spot. They then shut down the voting precinct, and held the veterans’ poll watchers captive. Soon, the Sheriff and other deputies arrived, sirens blazing, to seize the ballot boxes and move them to the jail. Word then spread throughout McMinn County that voting was to be canceled, and all ballot boxes were to be taken to the jail.