MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Early voting starts in Tennessee on Wednesday for the November election. In other cities where early voting is already underway, turnout is way ahead of 2020, and voters are experiencing long lines and wait times.
Early voting in Shelby County will have 26 locations, but Election Day will be more than five times that number with 142 precincts. Shelby County election workers are rolling up their sleeves to prepare for the start of early voting tomorrow. And with a larger-than-usual voter registration, that won’t be an easy task.
"We’ve added about 7,000 voters to the roll since October first," said Linda Phillips, the Shelby County Election Administrator.
In the Election Operations Center, Phillips and her team are preparing to ship out hundreds of machines to voting locations.
"We'll have about 1,800 workers this election," she said.
"As workers, we'll have a help desk and [officers at polling locations] will call in with routine matters and items that are not routine," one election worker said.
Phillips said voters can be confident that their votes will be counted.
"Our ballot boxes will not be stuffed, illegal aliens are not voting, nobody gets to vote more than once," she said.
One concern is the six referendums that Memphis voters will decide on because they tend to delay how quickly voters fill out their ballots. Three of the questions deal with gun safety measures. The others deal with requirements to run for mayor and city council, and who will decide those elected officials' salaries.
"We were doing some timed tests, and it tends to take voters between 11-19 minutes to read those referendums," Phillips said. "So I would strongly urge people to check them out before you get to the polling place."
Early voting ends on Oct. 31 in Tennessee. If you are not planning to vote early, Phillips said that you should be voter ready and make sure that you double-check your home polling place. For all other information about identification requirements or mail-in ballots, you can head to govotetn.gov.