Former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton told several hundred supporters Saturday he intends to win back the mayor’s office by taking the early vote in advance of the Oct. 3 election day.

“We are going to win this election in early voting,” he told a group of several hundred women at a Women for Herenton rally at his southwest Memphis campaign headquarters. “We’re going to have a caravan of buses. We’re going to have vans called the Herenton express. We are going to roll up to early voting like they have never seen before.”

Herenton said the emphasis on early voting is because of the possibility of election fraud.

“In Memphis, technologically they can steal elections. I want you to feel me,” he said to cheers. “We’re going to win overwhelmingly so they can’t steal the election. I need you to come out in record numbers.”

The women’s rally drew a crowd more than twice the size of the Herenton’s men’s rally three weeks earlier.

Herenton’s suspicions about the voting process go back to the 1991 mayor’s race when he upset incumbent Dick Hackett by 142 votes to become the city’s first elected African American mayor. The vote count was delayed past midnight with absentee votes counted last. There was no early voting in Shelby County in 1991 and absentee votes were usually counted first once the election day voting sites closed.

“We know from past events that election officials are capable of being unprofessional and illegal in the accounting of voting in the electoral process,” Herenton said. “We may even call the federal officials in to monitor the election. We clearly do not trust the process in Memphis and Shelby County.”

On the stump, Herenton accused Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland of being “weak on crime.”

Before Herenton spoke, his campaign manager, Robert Spence, ridiculed Strickland’s “brilliant at the basics” mantra of focusing on core city services like road paving, a larger police force and upgrading the city’s infrastructure.

“What is that?” Spence asked. “It sounds to me like somebody running for office is saying the best they can be is mediocre. … If you were basic, you wouldn’t be here today.”

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Strickland campaign consultant Steven Reid defended the “brilliant at the basics” approach.

“It was under Herenton’s watch Memphis first made the list of the most dangerous cities in America,” Reid said by email. “Under Herenton’s watch our taxes were going up, our city services were being slashed, the city stopped funding the pension and businesses and jobs were moving away.”

Meanwhile, mayoral contender Tami Sawyer ripped Herenton and Strickland for attending the local Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Day Gala fundraiser Friday evening.

Sawyer noted there have not been any debates scheduled among the three major mayoral contenders.

“But they had no problem going to the GOP’s annual fundraiser and listening to calls for 45’s (Trump's) re-election, how D’s (Democrats) hate the principles of government and rubbing elbows with those whose policies are set to devastate healthcare, increase privatized prison populations, keep wages low and privatize education,” she tweeted of some of the points made in a speech at the gala by former Gov. Don Sundquist.

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“I don’t know about you, but leadership that normalizes the sentiments coming out of the GOP from voucher spending to wall building to caging children to everything in between is not what I want for our city,” she said.

Strickland and Herenton have each attended past Lincoln Day Galas.

Strickland is a former Shelby County Democratic Party chairman and also attends Democratic party events as well.

Herenton identifies politically as a Democrat but has never been involved in the local party structure.

He recalled going to one meeting of the Democratic party’s local executive committee, “and they roasted me.”

“Lamar Alexander and I have had a friendship over 30 years, including when he was governor,” Herenton said of the Republican U.S. Senator.

“I supported Don Sundquist. So I’ve always been able to cross party lines depending on the quality of the elected official,” he said. “When I was in politics, the majority of my contributors were Republican businessmen. … These people who are surprised, I’m a Democrat by choice.”

Reid said Strickland met privately before the gala with Lee to discuss increasing the Tennessee Highway Patrol presence in the city, including a permanent presence.

“Much like Sheriff (Floyd) Bonner and many other elected officials who attended, Mayor Strickland is mayor of all Memphians,” Reid said.