Election Day in Shelby County is a busy one
Polling places across Shelby County saw high turnout on Election Day, with some places running out of “I Voted” stickers and others using more provisional ballots than expected.
“There is an uptick in provisional ballots. We’re not exactly sure why,’’ Shelby County Election Commission spokeswoman Suzanne Thompson said early Tuesday afternoon.
Provisional ballots are used when polling station officials spot an inconsistency or incomplete information in a voter’s identification material. The Court of Appeals of Tennessee at Jackson said last week that voters who correct incomplete registration applications on Election Day can cast provisional ballots, as allowed by Tennessee law. No voter is supposed to be turned away from the polls without being allowed to cast a provisional ballot.
Tuesday’s election was a chance for Shelby County residents to weigh in on federal, state and local races. U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and state lawmaker seats were up for re-election, and Tennessee voters would choose a new governor.
Mayoral races would shape the future of Germantown, Bartlett and Lakeland while Collierville and Millington also had contested races.
In Memphis, residents could vote for or against three ballot questions that could lengthen City Council term limits beyond the current twoterm cap and change runoff procedures for future city elections.
Democratic Party observers outside voting stations in Memphis and Shelby County reported that a number of voters with incomplete registrations were turned away by polling station officials, said Amanda Yanchury, communications director in Nashville for the state Democratic Party.
Voters were advised by poll watchers to ask for provisional ballots, Yanchury said. She said it was not known how many voters might have been turned away.
The Tennessee Democratic Party said their team had opened 15 incidents in West Tennessee, with the
largest issue being an inability to reach the Shelby County Election Commission to verify registrations.
Mary Nikkel, a Germantown voter who recently moved to the county, said she tried calling the county after she couldn’t find herself listed after registering online.
“I got put on hold for 20 minutes, then the call dropped. I tried calling the Tennessee Division of Elections, but they just transferred me back to the county number, which then dropped my call yet again,” she said in an email. She later was able to cast her ballot.
Thompson said there was an issue with the phone system prompt to inquire about registration, but that it was corrected before noon.
Early morning rush to the polls
At Central Christian Church on South McLean Boulevard at Peabody Avenue, the line started forming just after 6 a.m. About 10 minutes before the polls opened, a line of more than 40 voters snaked around the exterior of the church.
At the 7 a.m. opening of the polling place at Schilling Farms YMCA in Collierville, the line stretched more than 150 feet from the gymnasium to the YMCA lobby. The line moved briskly and by 7:20 a.m. it was only about 50 feet long.
All locations opened on time, Thompson said, although two polling stations had close calls. In one case, keys were unable to be located in a timely matter. A person with a bolt cutter was dispatched to cut the lock. It wasn’t clear Tuesday morning whether the keys were discovered or the bolt cutter was deployed, Thompson said. In any event, the station opened on time, she said.
In another, a polling station worker who feared she was caught in traffic managed to reach the station in time, Thompson said.
Voters cite an array of motivations
After voting Downtown, the Rev. London Richmond said this election will set the stage for 2020. Richmond, a 73year-old Memphian and pastor at a church in Mississippi, said that Barack Obama talked about change in his presidential campaign, and that change is really needed now.
“I vote in every election,” he said. “See, when I go in there to vote, I vote for three people. That’s my grandfather and grandmother because they never did get a chance to vote. We got an opportunity to vote, I don’t care who’s running. I just go vote. I pick out somebody who I think is all right, qualified and sounds good, then I go vote.”
Memphis native Elmeka Jeter voted early this election cycle because she’s also “looking for change,” but she showed up again on Election Day to make sure her grandmother Pearlie Ward had a chance to cast her ballot, too.
“I vote all the time, Ward said. “I’m trying to get the right somebody in there who is going to do us some good.”
In Bartlett, Kim Sartain arrived to vote with her 8-year-old daughter. She said safety is her main concern and that she votes in every election.
Sartain was torn, but ended up voting for Republican Marsha Blackburn for U.S. Senate, she said. She also said she thought both candidates for governor were impressive.
“I’m a staunch Republican, but I do listen to the issues,” Sartain said. “I support President Trump, I believe in President Trump, but this time I really researched the candidates. I usually just vote right down party lines.”
In Germantown, nursing student Jennifer Bell told The Commercial Appeal that she was focused on state races and didn’t vote on local candidates.
“I’m more concerned about the big picture, our country as a whole. I think Germantown is great,” she said.