MEMPHIS, Tenn — New information obtained by ABC24 Tuesday shows a top candidate for Memphis Mayor during the Oct. 5 city-wide elections wanted the Shelby County D.A. to look into the Shelby County Election Commission after ballot box keys were stolen a day before the election.
Memphis mayoral candidate and former Shelby County Commissioner Van Turner sent the letter to D.A. Steve Mulroy and U.S. Attorney Kevin Ritz Oct. 13, requesting an investigation into the election commission, saying Election Commissioner Linda Phillips' statement the election was not compromised was not based on anything "conclusively proving the election was not compromised."
“We want to ensure that there wasn’t any compromise," Price said. “Why would an election inspector leave all of this stuff in her car two days before election night.”
Price and Turner requested this investigation after they said they learned about alleged security breaches; namely, ballot box keys being stolen from an election worker's car on Oct. 4, just a day before the election.
Turner now said in a statement to ABC24: "I requested a federal investigation based on the police report indicating that election keys and codes were stolen. As this is an ongoing criminal investigation, I think it’s appropriate for those agencies to provide further comment. It’s my hope that for future elections, what happened here will not happen again and that the integrity of the electoral process will remain intact."
“Our voters are already at the sentiment that they’re not going to show up because it’s not going to matter; well if we don’t address security breaches like this," Price said. “Then we’re going to continue to see a decline in turnout.”
Former candidates and voting advocates alike share a hope that voter confidence won't be impacted as city runoff elections are just around the corner.
“We have very crucial elections taking place in three single-member districts; two, three, and seven, and this might dictate and determine what the landscape of the city council and the city more broadly speaking might look like," pastor Dr. Earle Fisher founder of the Memphis People's Convention said. "Yeah, people should be concerned in so far as what happened, but they should also be clear-eyed in seeing if had any effect or impact on the outcome and objective people have concluded that it has not."