For at least a few hours Thursday night, 157 Poplar was the
epicenter of the Shelby County political universe. That’s the address of the
Election Commission, and it was here that candidates, supporters, and members of
the media massed to get the election results as they were made available.
At 7 p.m., as polling precincts closed throughout the
county, the decently sized crowd seemed tense, waiting for results to begin to
trickle in. Two supporters of judicial candidate Regina Newman commented that
they didn’t have fingernails left to chew on. Supporters of other campaigns made
similar jokes to downplay their nervousness. Members of the press paced the
halls anxiously trying to glean any information.
At 740 p.m. came an announcement of further delay: There
were reportedly still some lines in precincts across the county, and results
were being held back to avoid affecting the votes of those still waiting in
line.
That announcement amped up an already edgy room.
Relief came shortly after 8 p.m., when the unofficial
absentee and early-voting results were released. As workers for the election
commission passed out the 38 pages of results reports, the crowd massed, then as
individuals got theirs, broke like a wave, dispersing across the building to
peruse the results. People rifled through pages, flipped open their cell phones,
and starting making their good news/bad news calls to points across the county..
Press representatives were simultaneously doing the same. The diaspora of
information was quick, and within minutes TV stations began showing the results.
Everybody wad advised that, for bettered or for worse, these were “just the
early-voting results.”
A projector was set up in a large jury-summons room, and
for the rest of the night the results were shown on the screen. As people
began figuring out that this was quicker and easier than scanning the printouts,
the chairs in the jury-summons room began filling up, and all eyes were on the
screen , fixing on its slowly scrolling numbers.
AMONG THE CANDIDATES there Thursday night was city
councilman Myron Lowery, who was up big in his bid for the newly minted Charter
Commission and who ultimately won a seat. Lowery was quick to point out that he
had the most votes of any Charter Commission candidate. He stayed at the
commission long enough to make sure the good news was complete. When he left the
building, he bid the various supporters of other campaigns good luck that
evening and was congratulated in return. Lowery walked out of the room to
applause.
Outside the newly elected Lowery said he was ready to get
to the work of the Charter Commission, particularly on the issues of term limits
for elected officials and staggered terms for council members. He also
mentioned the possibility of contracting the size of the City Council,
reappraising the powers of the mayor, and prohibiting the sale of Memphis Light,
Gas and Water “without a referendum from the voters.” The Commission should hold
a series of public meetings, he said.
Comparing his Commission campaign to others he has run,
Lowery said, “I campaigned the same way. It was grass-roots. I did not have one
sign up at any of the early-voting places. I did not have one sign up at any of
the polling places today. Signs don’t win elections. There were too many signs
out here.” Then he was gone.
A LITTLE BIT LATER, Election Commissioner Rich Holden was
talking about the federal agents in Shelby County on election day, saying that
the commission had been informed by the Department of Justice that there would
be two people from the Civil Rights Division observing the Shelby County
election process, “which is the first time that’s occurred in the State of
Tennessee” Said Holden:. “They picked a dozen precincts that were representative
of what they were looking for, which was criteria they did not inform us of. The
specifics we do not know, but they observed, we did not get any feedback
positive or negative.”
Holden had a significant qualifier. “They didn’t send 40
people. If they thought there were significant problems, they would have sent a
significant quantity of people. They were basically observing our processes and
procedures and making sure everybody was given equal rights.” The commissioner
said he didn’t know if or when a Department of Justice report on the day’s
observations would be forthcoming.
Candidates came and went as the night progressed —
including a briefly appearing Bren Olswanger, former reality-show TV contestant
from The Apprentice and now a first-time political candidate, running for
a General Sessions judgeship. As on The Apprentice, Bren Olswanger was
bedecked in a dapper bowtie. (As on the show, he lost.)
Another first timer Thursday night was19-year-old Deangelo
Pegues, a candidate for a seat on the Shelby County Commission. Looking
composed in a sharp suit, his high school ring glittering in counterpart to his
smile, Pegues maintained an unflagging optimism despite the fact that, with
two-thirds of the precincts in, he was trailing Republican opponent Mike
Carpenter 82 percent to 17 percent.
Pegues, who said taxes and crime were his chief concerns,
speculated that his friends were probably “at the movies, preparing for school,
at the house asleep, maybe.”
He stayed upbeat despite the unfavorable numbers. . When
asked what would be next for him if he did, in fact, lose, Pegues was
never-say-die: “Hopefully, I’ll win.” If he did lose, he finally said, he would
work with the commission as a “concerned citizen,” and look for another
opportunity later.
Gale Jones Carson, the well-known local head of the Shelby
County Democrats’ coordinated election campaign, was nearby checking on the
election results. Chatting up Pegues, whom she had not met before. Carson
advised him of the dangers of running as an independent in a heavily
Republican area. Pegues responded: “I wanted to run as an independent to
represent the people and not a specific party.”
Warren Cole, a poll watcher for John Willingham’s mayoral
campaign, was at the commission until late Thursday night, “checking the
numbers, making sure all the precincts that reported [that] there were no
inequities involved.” Concerning the early-voting numbers, Cole said he was
“suspicious” and said he “didn’t feel comfortable with the numbers,” noting the
discrepancy between new, expensive voting machines and the lines that seemed
longer rather than shorter at voting stations. He was troubled by that and the
delays in reporting.
At the time Willingham was trailing by a hefty percentage
to opponent Democrat A C Wharton. “Something just don’t feel right right now,”
Cole said. He suggested that in the coming weeks, he, along with others, would
be looking carefully at the raw election data. Before that, however, he would
“get a little rest in, let my mind rest, my body and soul, then follow up
on my instincts.”
As the clock hand swept toward midnight and as the size of
the once flourishing congregation of people at the election commission gradually
dwindled, both the departees and those still lingering clearly fighting the
fatigue at the end of another election season, that sounded like good advice.
