Of course he couldn't because he was intent upon deceiving. The June 1861 Tennessee secession referendum had over 150,000 voting participants.
Contrast that with the February 1861 secession convention vote of 110,000 and the November 1860 Presidential election vote of 146,000.
Yet he has the audacity to claim that the June 1865 election - with the HIGHEST turnout of the three - was somehow fraught with "voter intimidation." Hell, Mary Frances Berry's claims of "voter intimidation" in Florida are more credible than that absurdity. The simple fact is that popular opinion in Tennessee turned fervently toward secession after Lincoln started his little war. Secession sentiments were so intense that some counties along the Alabama border petitioned the legislature to let them separate from the state and join Alabama if Tennessee would not secede.
I didn't dream up the charges of a tainted election. The June 1861 Greeneville Convention of East Tennesseans condemned Isham Harris's coup.
"...the election held in this state on the 8th day of this month was free, with but few exceptions, in no part of the state other than East Tennessee. In the larger portions of Middle and West Tennessee, no speeches or discussions in favor of the Union were permitted. Union papers were not allowed to circulate."
"The unanimity of the votes in many large counties, where, but a few weeks ago, the Union sentiment was so strong, proves beyond a doubt that Union men were overawed by the tyranny of the military law, and the still greater tyranny of a corrupt and subsidized press."
For example in February Rutherford County rejected the convention by a vote of 1,539 to 1,003. In the June election the vote was 2,392 to 73 for secession! That's just one of the strange results from Middle and West Tennessee counties. I'm not saying that Lincoln's actions didn't have some effect. The less tainted vote in East Tennessee went from over 4 to 1 in favor of the Union in Feb. to only over 2 to 1 for the Union in June. But the returns of many counties with no votes for the Union was unusual to say the least. But beyond the election itself, Harris and the state legislature's politicians of the slave interest pulled the state out of the Union without prior authorization from the people which was obviously illegal.