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Dirty Secrets Under Lake Lanier And Other Evil Government Plots

Khalid Elhassan September 21, 2022 38 min

A Corrupt Government Machine That Tried to Punk WWII Veterans

Headquarters of the GI Nonpartisan Party. Tennessee Overhill

As they endured their sheriff’s depredations, “wait ’til the boys get back!” became a mantra amongst McMinn County’s locals. As the vets drifted back home, they determined to change things. So they formed “The GI Nonpartisan Party” to contest the elections scheduled for August 2^nd, 1946. With all county government offices on the line, especially that of sheriff, the stakes 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. Sheriff Cantrell and his political machine knew that who counts the votes matters more than who votes. So all they had to do was control the ballot boxes.

Returning McMinn County veterans went to war at home in the Battle of Athens. Pinterest

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. The deputies then shut down the precinct, and held the veterans’ poll watchers captive. Soon, Sheriff Cantrell 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 cancelled, and all ballot boxes were to be taken to the jail. As Sheriff Cantrell and about 200 deputized henchmen barricaded themselves with the ballot boxes in the fortress-like county jail, it was put up or shut up time. The veterans decided to put up.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.