The Williamson County Conservatives (WCC) slate of candidates for the leadership of the Williamson County Republican Party (WCRP) on Sunday filed an appeal to contest the results of the party’s March 4 reorganizing convention, which they allege suffered from serious election integrity and collusion issues, a flippant claim about the possible burning of ballots, which it said can only be solved with a new convention.
After the narrow victories of the Elevate-2025 slate, which contained four candidates who were already members of leadership, WCC confirmed its “official Notice of Contest” for the county party’s March 4 convention to Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden.
“Due to the large number and material nature of issues, irregularities, and improprieties observed at the Williamson County Republican Party Reorganization Convention of Tuesday, March 4, 2025, and that occurred prior to the Convention, per the Bylaws of the Tennessee Republican Party, Rule F, Section 1, this is our official Notice of Contest of the elections for all executive committee offices of the Williamson County Republican Party which we the undersigned were candidates,” the WCC slate confirmed in an email obtained by The Tennessee Star.
The first four issues identified by WCC took place before the convention was held, with the candidate slate alleging the WCRP failed to hold a planning meeting prior to January 30 as required by the party’s bylaws. They allege that WCRP then failed to announce a time or place for the March convention.
It is also claimed that WCRP failed to allow members of the public to attend meetings of the Contest and Credentials Committee, and that this committee failed to allow WCC to appoint delegates to observe the vote tabulating process.
WCC also said the Contest and Credentials Committee unilaterally opened registration for the convention at 4 p.m. instead of 4:30 p.m. as previous announced, and said that WCC did not learn of the decision until ten minutes after registration began at the earlier time.
They additionally stated that the slate of candidates was unable to have an observer present until the originally assigned time.
According to WCC, party officials also misinformed voters of whether they are a Bona Fide Republican, a registered Republican who has voted in at least three of the four most recent party nominating contests.
“Individuals working the Check In and registration tables (all who supported our opponents) improperly turned away Bona Fide Republicans and did not allow them to vote,” WCC alleged. “The Party had an affirmative a duty to allow these voters to appeal the denial of bona fide status and examine their voting records. These appeals did not happen.”
They also allege that while there were reported to be 1,555 votes cast during the convention, the capacity of the venue was 1,900, and described it as “overflowing” during the event.
“This means over 300 non-delegates were allowed on the convention floor,” they wrote.
WCC also alleged the voting was conducted improperly, as party bylaws mandate the chairman’s election be held first, but the vote was instead held alongside the other leadership races.
The slate also said it was never given the chain of custody for the ballots, and honed in on 137 ballots deemed “spoiled” due to voter mistakes which were “cured,” but which the slate was unable to view the original ballots during its requested recount of the votes for party chairman.
It was these spoiled votes that allegedly drew remarks about burning ballots from party officials.
“The Party did not present these 137 ballots during the recount of the Chairman’s race for inspection. As the recount was being requested, Moonhee Bischoff of the Contest and Credentials Committee was overhead telling someone regarding the spoiled ballots that ‘we should burn them,'” wrote WCC.
“These “spoiled ballots” represent 8.8% of all ballots cast and we are unable to determine if they were indeed ‘spoiled,’ accurately transcribed to new ballots, or even tabulated at the Convention. Such an error rate is unheard of in any honest election and should be investigated for the potential vote tampering.”
In a Sunday post to Facebook, WCC referenced its claims about party officials discussing the possible destruction of ballots.
“Let’s hope the member of the Contests & Credentials Committee that – IN FRONT OF MULTIPLE WITNESSES – flippantly stated in the count room that they should burn certain ballots, Moonhee Bischoff, did not actually burn the ballots,” wrote WCC.
They also alleged that members of the Elevate-2025 had access to the vote tabulation room, calling it “a grave breach of election security.”
The election challenge and complaints about the integrity of the contest were preceded by concerns of voter suppression by the WCRP targeting the WCC slate, as multiple Williamson County Republicans received unsigned emails informing them they were not Bona Fide Republicans and did not have the right to vote in the contest. Golden declined to weigh in on the matter.
The WCC slate previously asked Golden for records pertaining to the convention.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks. It’s pretty much like WCCs whole campaign. I screw up my ballot and ask for another ballot. What purpose is the ballot I screwed up. What, you want to count that too ? It just sounds like sore loser syndrome to me.
The end justifies the means?
And these people want to run the whole state?