Free and fair elections are the lifeblood of a democracy. Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965, all courts, regardless of ideological bent, have frowned upon states and municipalities that erect barriers to free and transparent voting procedures.
Moreover, the U.S. Department of Justice has paid closer attention to states (e.g., Mississippi) and cities which have had a history of questionable procedures suspected of an intent to suppress certain voters from freely exercising their constitutional right. Some cities have been on the Justice Department’s watch list more than others. Memphis has been one of those cities.
As far back as the 1974 election for the 9th Congressional District, boxes of votes disappeared, then reappeared, only after intense scrutiny and loud protests by African-American leaders. Had it not been for the vigilance of the Harold Ford campaign, the missing boxes of votes could well have resulted in the reelection of Congressman Dan Kuykendall.
In the 1991 Memphis mayor’s race, more possible chicanery was quickly covered up when certain city leaders papered over the irregularities and declared Willie Herenton the winner over Dick Hackett. In the 2010 election, questions were raised about irregularities that could have affected the outcome of the sheriff’s race.
Throughout this 40-year period, all election commissioners have routinely “purged” voters’ names from voter registration rosters after those voters had failed to participate in at least two federal elections in a four-year period.
Such purging, when done legitimately and without bias, would usually result in reducing the roster’s size by about 1 percent to 3 percent at most.
In August 2008, data from the Shelby County Election Commission showed that there were 625,627 voters in the county. In the November general election, when Barack Obama and John McCain were in the presidential race, a total of 404,180 persons voted in Shelby County — a very healthy 64.6 percent voter turnout.
In November 2010, there were 602,647 registered voters in Shelby County, and in the November general elections for governor and other state and county offices that year, a total of 232,243 persons voted in Shelby County, a turnout of 38.5 percent.
Now comes the latest purging of the voter registration lists, which shows that Shelby County now has only 431,054 registered voters — a drop of 171,593 voters or a 28.5 percent decrease.
What exactly could have happened to cause such a sharp drop in the 18-month period since the November 2010 data? The latest voter registration data raises serious questions about the process used by the Shelby County Election Commission to produce these figures.
