Shelby County group wants more voting sites
They want the election commission to open up all of the early voting precincts for all of the early voting period that precedes the May 3 primary county election.
A group of local advocates is reacting to the Shelby County Election Commission’s proposal to open just one site for the first three days of April early voting in the runup to the May 3 county primary election.
The proposal to limit the first days of early voting to a single site at the James Meredith Building at 157 Poplar had already faced challenges at a public meeting on Monday and the number of sites may be expanded to about six.
On Friday, the groups #Upthevote901, the Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis, and some affiliated organizations demanded that the election commission go even further.
They want the election commission to open up all of the early voting precincts — 26 in all — for all of the early voting period that precedes the May 3 primary county election.
“We believe this measure of elimination of precincts, which has been legally refuted in the past, is part of a broader pattern of voter suppression tactics that have come out of SCEC under (election administrator) Linda Phillips’ direction and an election commission makeup that does not reflect the will of the voters in Shelby County,” said the letter. It was signed by Upthevote901 leader Rev. Earle Fisher and about 60 other clergy members and local citizens.
The situation reflects longstanding suspicion among Democrats and Democratic-leaning organizations that the Republican-controlled election commission is working against their interests. In Tennessee, county election commissions are explicitly partisan organizations. The party that controls the Tennessee legislature has effective control over the election commissions in the state’s 95 counties. The Republican party has controlled the Tennessee legislature and the county election commissions for years, holding a majority of board memberships and choosing the administrators who put election policy into practice. Upthevote901 and the clergy organization said they will press to change the state law that determines the makeup of local election commissions and are also calling for the 13-member Shelby County Commission to exert greater control over the election board. In May 3 election, voters will choose Democratic and Republican nominees for Shelby County Mayor, Sheriff, District Attorney, Shelby County Commission and many other offices.
Phillips, the election administrator, said she aims to work fairly on behalf of the voters, and that opening multiple voting sites for a low-turnout primary election right around the Easter holiday doesn’t make sense.
“I think it’s 21 of our 26 locations are churches. And so that coupled with the fact that it’s very difficult to find people who want to work on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.”
She said state law requires the election commission to open one site for early voting 20 days before the election. In this case, that means early voting would open on Wednesday, April 13.
The polling site will be open Thursday, then closed for Good Friday, then open again on Saturday. The plan to have only one site open during the first three days of early April voting immediately drew criticism at an Election Commission meeting on Monday, and the meeting ended with an agreement to look into the possibility of opening five non-church locations. The activists’ letter says that contrary to the election commission’s statements, pastors have expressed willingness to make churches available around Easter.
Fight over early voting comes amid broader changes to election day districts
The Election Commission typically holds early voting in only a few locations, then Election Day voting in many more locations. The commission recently adopted a map that reduces the number of May 3 Election Day precincts from 166 to 142. That same map will be used in two additional rounds of voting later this year. Possible questions and confusion about new precinct sites on Election Day could prompt more people to avoid the problems by voting early, said Bennie Smith, a Democratic member of the Election Commission.
“Therefore it is reasonable for the public to ask for more access (to early voting,)” he said. Smith said he understands why many people distrust the election commission and said he frequently clashes with the Republican leadership.
In this case, he said he doesn’t have any evidence that the new precinct map made by Phillips and others sought to suppress voters — but he said he wants a public information campaign to make sure that members of the public know where to vote. “Everybody’s precinct number changed.” Phillips said the redrawing of voter precincts followed the adoption of new districts by the legislature. She said she drew a new precinct map as part of a bipartisan group and said she sought to make the new precincts more rational and efficient.
“When we got the lines, what we wanted to do was create some more rational boundaries. For example, we had precincts that were split by Interstate 55, and the same precinct.”
She also said the commission sought to eliminate precincts with a very small number of voters.
She said that Smith, a Democratic member of the commission, sponsored the resolution that approved the district map — a point that Smith confirmed.
Three rounds of voting this year for Shelby County
In addition to the May 3 county election, two additional rounds of voting are taking place this year.
On August 4, voters cast ballots in the general election for County Mayor and other offices, as well as primaries for state and federal seats and a special election for the city of Memphis.
Then, on November 8, voters cast ballots in the state and federal general election, as well as municipal elections for Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland and Millington.