Oak Hill City Manager currently purged from election rolls

Bunker battle leader awaits ruling from state election commission

Email | Print By Ken Whitehouse

Dr. William Kraus, city manager of the Nashville suburb of Oak Hill, has been purged from Davidson County election rolls pending a decision from the Tennessee Division of Elections.

Kraus is a leader in the battle to block Gov. Phil Bredesen and First Lady Andrea Conte from building what has been called the "Bredesen bunker," an underground ballroom built on the grounds of Tennessee's Executive Residence. The City of Oak Hill has fought the construction of the facility, citing concerns over traffic, blasting in a residential neighborhood and cost.

Kraus has been purged from voting rolls by the Davidson County Election Commission because his voter registration form omitted in one section and denied in another that he had been convicted of a felony. That turned out to be incorrect when the Nashville political blog VolunteerVoters.com discovered he had been convicted of a felony in 1985 while a city manager in California.

Speaking to NashvillePost.com today, Lionel Barrett of the Davidson County Election Commission said that his office had sought clarification from Kraus when the information came to light. Kraus responded to the commission in a letter stating that, while he had been convicted of a felony, he was told by the California judge that he had not lost his voting rights. Barrett said that he has since received a letter from Kraus' California attorney confirming that position.

Barrett said that the commission has purged Kraus from the rolls until a request to the Tennessee Division of Elections comes back with guidance on how they think the local commission should proceed.

"He did answer the question incorrectly," Barrett said referring to the felony conviction question on the voter application form, but added there were questions raised in the correspondence that resulted in seeking guidance from the state.

Asked if the matter had been turned over to the District Attorney's Office for investigation into possible voter fraud, Barrett said that it had not.

Calls to the Tennessee Division of Elections to find out the status of their response have gone unreturned at the time of publication of this article.