Gabrielle Hanson 2023

Franklin Alderman Gabrielle Hanson speaks during the Aug. 8, 2023, Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting.

 Matt Masters

This story has been updated.

Outgoing Franklin Alderman and mayoral candidate Gabrielle Hanson has broken her post-election silence with an appearance on an Arizona-based podcast where she claims, without evidence, election fraud.

Hanson was defeated by incumbent Franklin Mayor Ken Moore 12,822 to 3,322 votes, a win which was certified by the Williamson County Election Commission on Friday.

Hanson's claims on the Arizona Today podcast include allegations of early voting errors and that votes cast for Hanson were automatically marked for her opponent.

Hanson gave no evidence for these claims, and according to Williamson County Election Commission Administrator Chad Gray, neither Hanson nor anyone from her campaign ever contacted the election commission with any complaints or allegations of fraud or issues.

"We have not had any interactions with Mrs. Hanson or anyone connected to her campaign committee, whatsoever," Gray said.

Tennessee law allows candidates five days after an election is certified to contest the results of the election by way of a court filing.

As of Thursday, nothing had been filed in the Williamson County court system, meaning that the legal window to challenge the results closed with no formal complaint filed.

Hanson voiced a number of concerns on the podcast, including a delay that occurred as polls opened on Election Day, an issue that was addressed remotely by the election commission's IT department. Gray told The News that the issue concerned a laptop used to check voters in, not any actual voting machines as alleged by Hanson. 

Gray said on Election Day that the issue did not impact any votes or the ability for people to cast ballots.

"We're pleased with how our new ExpressVote Printers worked," Gray told The News on election night. "We were trying to make things more efficient with that, and we're going to use that going forward.

"There's always some issues that come up with the use of new technology, [but] our poll officials, I think, weathered it really well, and I think overall the experience we hope that our voters had was a very good one."

Hanson made national news following a slew of incidents over the last seven months, which included defending her association with white supremacists who acted as a show of force at a Franklin candidate forum; appearing with a white supremacist as her campaign platformed white nationalist talking points; falsely claiming to have had advanced knowledge of the Covenant School shooting; alleging "unfounded" threats against her surrounding her opposition to the 2023 Franklin Pride Festival; threatening to have our reporter arrested; evading questions about her criminal past; and attempting to pressure the Nashville International Airport to pull sponsorship support of a Juneteenth event, leading to a city ethics violation and her failed attempt at suing the Franklin Ethics Commission.

Hanson's campaign has also been under the microscope of NewsChannel 5's investigative reporter Phil Williams who has published several stories about the embattled candidate's deceptive campaign posts featuring relative strangers as well as questions about Hanson and her husband's residency and her husband's participation in a Chicago Pride parade, a topic which Hanson has been vocally against.

Hanson has ignored all requests for comment from The News since her defeat, and she has not returned a request for comment about these specific post-election allegations that she made on the podcast.