Only three more days remain in early voting for the May 4 Shelby County primaries, and, believe us, there are plenty of touch-screen voting machines just begging for use. Looking at early-voting numbers, we find that some of the 21 early-voting locations are averaging about five voters per hour. For $1 million, county taxpayers are footing the bill for local parties to choose their nominees for county offices through primaries that, it appears, 10 percent or fewer registered voters will bother to participate in. If projections hold, the article points out, the four May Shelby County primaries held since 1998 will have averaged about 66,000 voters, well short of the more than 162,000 voters the county has averaged for August mid-presidential-term elections going back to 1982.
At The Commercial Appeal, we have chosen to focus on those contested County Commission races where the winner next Tuesday effectively wins the seat (barring unexpected write-in challenges). So, go read about it or check out the numbers yourself at this Shelby County Election Commission link to early-voting data.
Some other stories we've run recently:
County Commissioners Wyatt Bunker and Mike Carpenter, both Republicans, do not like each other much these days, and don't mind airing their grievances. Bunker is doing something very rare in politics, actively campaigning against a colleague in his own party. Carpenter alleges he is motivated by spite more than anything else.
The most recent previews we ran were of county commission races for District 3, Position 3 between appointed incumbent Edith Ann Moore and Justin Ford, for District 4, Position 2 between incumbent Wyatt Bunker, Memphis Police Department veteran Ron Fittes and retired CPA John Wilkerson, for District 4, Position 1 between Jim Bomprezzi, John Pellicciotti (appointed incumbent) and Chris Thomas.
At The Commercial Appeal, we have chosen to focus on those contested County Commission races where the winner next Tuesday effectively wins the seat (barring unexpected write-in challenges). So, go read about it or check out the numbers yourself at this Shelby County Election Commission link to early-voting data.
Some other stories we've run recently:
County Commissioners Wyatt Bunker and Mike Carpenter, both Republicans, do not like each other much these days, and don't mind airing their grievances. Bunker is doing something very rare in politics, actively campaigning against a colleague in his own party. Carpenter alleges he is motivated by spite more than anything else.
The most recent previews we ran were of county commission races for District 3, Position 3 between appointed incumbent Edith Ann Moore and Justin Ford, for District 4, Position 2 between incumbent Wyatt Bunker, Memphis Police Department veteran Ron Fittes and retired CPA John Wilkerson, for District 4, Position 1 between Jim Bomprezzi, John Pellicciotti (appointed incumbent) and Chris Thomas.
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