The Shelby County Election Commission is preparing for an increase in absentee balloting in advance of the Aug. 6 election day.

The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government joined news organizations and journalists in filing an open meetings lawsuit Wednesday, April 29, against the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance in connection with a settlement for state Rep. Joe Towns of Memphis.

The Shelby County Election Commission delayed a decision Thursday on a new voting system. The commission will hold an in-person meeting sometime next week. The commission also certified the ballot for the Aug. 6 elections in Shelby County.

The pandemic has led to mail-in voting a third choice for a new voting system, and it has possibly made the hand shake a relic. And it could make the presidential race even closer than one nationally known analyst thought it was going to be.

On The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, Deborah Fisher of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government says the current idea that election commissioners and the public can't see proposals for a new voting system before the commission makes a decision in public is "bad government."

The Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee rejected state Rep. John DeBerry’s challenge Wednesday, April 15, keeping him off the House District 90 Democratic ballot in the August primary.

State Rep. John DeBerry said Monday he has no other choice but to challenge a decision by the Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee to remove him from the August primary.

Two Shelby County Election Commissioners say on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast that the method being discussed for making the choice on new voting machines would keep the price of the machines a secret until the decision is made because of legal opinions.

Leading Democrats and Republicans in the General Assembly are knocking the Tennessee Democratic Party’s decision to take veteran state Rep. John DeBerry of Memphis off the August primary ballot.

The withdrawal deadline for the Aug. 6 ballot passed Thursday with several withdrawals from races on the Shelby County ballot. But much of the attention is on the decision the day before by the Tennessee Democratic Party to remove four contenders from the party primaries in Shelby County.

The Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee is set to vote Wednesday on whether remove Memphis state Rep. John DeBerry from the August primary ballot after a Memphis woman challenged his bonafide Democratic status.

The Registry of Election Finance held an email vote just before the April 2 qualifying deadline and cut a civil penalty against state Rep. Joe Towns by $44,100, enabling him to run for re-election.

Voter registration advocates are applauding the repeal of “onerous” restrictions and potential criminal penalties for large drives with the signing into law of new legislation passed in March.

The Thursday filing deadline also saw 14 confirmed candidates in the statewide Republican primary for U.S. Senate and five in the companion Democratic primary for the open seat.

A recap of the fields in the five Shelby County Schools board races and 16 races for the Tennessee Legislature.

Five incumbents could effectively win re-election at Thursday's noon deadline, but that's not a sure thing for most of them. And eight of the 16 seats in the Shelby County delegation to Nashville on the Aug. 6 ballot will likely be decided with the primaries as the winners run unopposed in the November general election.

County purchasing officials won’t make bid documents on a new voting system public until after the Election Commission makes a final decision. 

Shelby County Election Commissioners will meet electronically Wednesday, April 1, to discuss a new voting system for county elections.

Despite COVID-19 restrictions, the Election Commission remains open to issue and take petitions from contenders on the Aug. 6 ballot of state and federal primaries and nonpartisan school board races.

None of the changes in vote totals affect the outcome of the Super Tuesday presidential primaries and countywide primaries for General Sessions Court Clerk in Shelby County. The meeting is one of the last in-person deliberations by a public body as elected bodies move to online or conference call public meetings.

More than three dozen citizens have pulled qualifying petitions for the Senate seat now held by Lamar Alexander. That includes four Memphians. A week and a half from the filing deadline, 16 have filed.

Most of the delegates for the Democratic National Convention from the 9th Congressional District go to former vice president Joe Biden. The delegate selection was moved online because of the COVID-19 virus.

Candidates are filing petitions for August election ballot.

Shelby County elections administrator Linda Phillips says her goal is still to have a new voting system in place when early voting begins July 17 in advance of the Aug. 6 election day.

With three weeks to the filing deadline, some incumbent state legislators still haven't pulled their petitions to seek new terms in Nashville and a few of those races are filling up with potential challengers.