Weakley Co. election administrator ‘encouraged’ to resign
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WEAKLEY COUNTY, Tenn. — The Weakley County Election Commission is shaken up after the administrator of elections announced her retirement and three long-time commissioners were fired over the weekend. Barbara Castleman announced her retirement two weeks ago in the last Weakley County Election Commission meeting. However, according to new information obtained by WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News, her retirement was not completely her idea. An emotional Castleman said she was “encouraged” to resign because her replacement was already chosen. “I almost feel guilty about retiring because I think well, if I had stayed in here maybe this wouldn’t be going on right now,” Castleman said. Castleman said her decision was partly her own decision but was pushed by State Rep. Andy Holt. “He kind of encouraged because he has his campaign manager, Mr. Alex Britt, that he wants him to have my job,” Castleman said. Holt said he should be the one to make the decision of who is the administrator of elections. “There was no resume process,” he said of Castleman’s hiring. “There was no process there for accepting applications.” He believes he should appoint the new administrator because it is a political position. Castleman said she was not just elected to her position but had applied for it and had an interview set up as well. However, she was elected to the position due to a discrepancy in a special meeting. Holt told WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News he fired three of the five commissioners, partly because they did not support Britt’s appointment. The former commissioners are expected to publicly speak out about the controversy on Wednesday. The controversy began when the former election commission started to find Castleman’s replacement. Beau Pemberton is an election commissioner and said the former election commission agreed they should allow the public to apply for the position. “Instead of saying to the commission ‘this is the person who should have the job’ or ‘this is the person that will have job,'” Pemberton said. “By doing that, it excludes, say, another qualified independent candidate.” But Holt did not agree, and according to multiple county leaders, Holt encouraged the commissioners to skip the application process altogether and appoint Britt. Castleman said according to the state election commission, Holt does not have the authority to decide how the Weakley County administrator of elections is hired and that it should fall completely in the hands of the election commission. Holt says he does have control of who sits on the election commission.
