MEMPHIS, Tenn. — After the first full week of early voting in the Shelby County primary, turnout has been nothing to write home about.
In fact, a look at the numbers shows there may be some validity to the charge local groups made earlier: that failing to open more early voting sites depressed the turnout.
Without getting too deeply into the data, the turnout for six days of voting last week was nearly 14,700. That’s actually higher than the same six-day period for the 2018 county primary – which had a turnout of just over 13,450.
The difference between the two years is that the start of early voting in 2018 included multiple sites – compared to this year when only the election commission headquarters downtown was open the first two days of voting.
As a result, the total turnout so far this year is just under 16,000 – compared to 2018 when it was nearly 21,000.
Of course, none of this means the election commission should be blamed for deliberately suppressing the vote. Several factors, including Holy Week leading up to Easter, impacted voting this year. The good news is, you still have until Thursday to cast an early vote in 24 district and countywide races or you can wait until Election Day on May 3.
The candidates, most of them Democrats, are campaigning hard for every single vote. Let’s do our part to push turnout higher than expected.