Shelby County capped off its 14-day early voting period on Thursday with a record-setting turnout of about 302,000 ballots cast, according to the head of the Shelby County Election Commission. The previous high was during the 2008 presidential race when almost 248,000 people headed to the polls early.
When combined with the close to 23,800 absentee ballots already received by the Election Commission, more than 50 percent of the county’s roughly 600,000 registered voters have now participated.
So far, Shelby County has the tenth highest percentage of registered voter turnout in Tennessee, according to the Secretary of State’s office. Shelby is the state’s largest county by population.
Locally, about 5,500 of requested absentee ballots still need to be returned via mail. State and local officials are instructing residents to immediately bring any remaining ballots to the Bartlett Post Office on Elmore Park Road, which can receive them up until 3:00 p.m. on Election Day for direct delivery to the counting headquarters. Ballots must have a stamp.
The head of the Election Commission, Linda Phillips, says the number and timing of absentee ballots received on Election Day will impact how quickly results can be announced that night. Signatures have to be verified before they can be tallied.
“If we get 3,000 on Election Day, and we don’t get them until 5:30 in the afternoon, it will be approximately 9 o’clock before we get the signatures verified,” she says. “And then, at that point, we’ve got another of 3-4 hours of work to get them counted.”
Philips is anticipating some short lines during rush hours on Election Day such as in the morning, but nothing unmanageable.
“We have enough equipment and staff out there to handle 200,000 voters,” she says. “I really would be very surprised if we had more than 75,000.”
A total of about 398,000 people in Shelby County voted in the 2008 presidential election when enthusiasm for Barack Obama’s candidacy as the first Black president drove people to the polls. Voter turnout was 342,000 in 2016.
Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s office reported that every county in Tennessee has seen higher early voting numbers this year—a 36 percent increase of early in-person and absentee ballots over 2016.