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Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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Voting for one of the more heated local elections in recent history closed shortly after 7 p.m. and after a delay results were finally announced. Shelby County’s ‘big ballot’ Election Day arrives with theme of changeRelated stories:
The early and absentee votes are the first to be counted once the polls are closed. The numbers here are the early vote only with separate totals not posted yet on absentee votes.
Final early voting turnout numbers should be released Monday, and politicos on both sides of the partisan divide will study the numbers for hints at Thursday’s election results.
While most people will be watching who won and who lost the evening of Thursday, Aug. 4, politicos will be viewing the numbers as the first indication of what could happen in the next election and the elections to follow. Shelby County’s ‘big ballot’ Election Day arrives with theme of changeRelated stories:
Polls across Shelby County open Thursday, Aug. 4, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The major races on county general election ballot reflect calls for change in several areas — at times, competing calls for change.Related stories:
Here is everything you need to know about voting on Election Day in Shelby County. Shelby County’s ‘big ballot' Election Day arrives with theme of changeRelated stories:
All 77,330 of the city’s high-pressure sodium streetlights will be replaced with LED lighting in a project that includes an automated management system that notifies MLGW when the lights are out.
Also Friday, the Memphis Area Transit Authority will offer free service on all fixed routes to encourage early voting ahead of the Aug. 4 election day.
Reaction to a third term bid by Mayor Jim Strickland was muted Wednesday, with a lot of questions about whether Strickland will even get the chance to run.
The 86,637 early voters for the 14-day period ending Saturday, July 30, turned out in force for the last two days.
General Sessions Court Judge Tim Dwyer is not seeking another term in the Aug. 4 election ending a family journey in politics that began in the early 1950s.
Numbers for Saturday’s final day of early voting aren’t out yet. But turnout is expected to top 80,000 for the two-week period. The final day also saw nonpartisan poll parties in two parts of town to boost overall turnout. Election Day is Aug. 4.
Lee said Friday, July 29, at Knowledge Quest’s Teen Tech Center that more than 2,000 families in Memphis and Nashville have applied for school vouchers and 40 schools have expressed interest in accepting those vouchers.
Ritz’s nomination by President Joe Biden goes to the U.S. Senate for confirmation.
Almost 65,000 had voted early or absentee through Thursday according to the latest figures from the state. The next-to-last day of the voting period on Fridays is usually the highest.
“In the four years that we have been here, something suddenly happened in May,” Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert said during a Thursday press conference.
MISO CEO John Bear says savings for MLGW from switching its electric power supplier from TVA to the rival power network are at least $100 million a year, which is nearly double the estimate of the power consultant MLGW is using.
Council chairwoman Jamita Swearengen and council member Worth Morgan are running for county positions. The possibility of either or both winning is behind a scramble by the council to draw new district lines.
The two contenders for Shelby County Mayor clashed for the second time in a week, this time at the Memphis Rotary Club’s traditional mayoral debate.
Among other topics, the discussion of the city’s capacity for bond debt will come into play during Tuesday morning committee sessions.
Some City Council members think the city could take on more risk with One Beale’s Grand Hyatt, while some say other projects come first.
The Shelby County Clerk’s office will implement a callback system beginning Tuesday, July 26, in an effort to eliminate the long lines of people waiting to renew auto license plates in person.
Shelby County’s early voter turnout so far is higher by far than any other county in the state and mostly Democratic with an estimated 35,000 in the first week once numbers from Friday and Saturday are posted Monday. Meanwhile John Rich campaigns for Brent Taylor and Republicans shuffle their endorsement ballot to highlight the county clerk’s race.
These eight county general election races aren’t the contests many voters are watching. Still, the offices control some basic yet complex business operations within county government. Here’s what the races look like.
In their separate campaigns, Worth Morgan and Lee Harris have offered vastly different visions of what the county mayor should prioritize. Each has criticized the vision of the other.