Memphis voters said no to all three Memphis City Council-related referendums on Tuesday’s ballot.
The controversial questions asked voters to extend term limits for the mayor and city council members, to repeal instant runoff voting (a system 71 percent of voters approved in 2008), and to eliminate runoff voting in single council districts.
About 60 percent of voters said no to elected officials serving three consecutive four-year terms in office. There were 101,607 no votes and 67,220 yes votes.
Shelby County Election Commission
Shelby County Election Commission
Voters also said no to repealing instant runoff voting, with 62,316 votes in favor of the repeal and 104,431 — or 63 percent — against it.
Shelby County Election Commission
Shelby County Election Commission
Finally, 54 percent of voters, or 91,183 voted against eliminating runoff elections in single council districts, while 77,243 voters voted for the elimination.
Shelby County Election Commission
Shelby County Election Commission
This comes after the city council voted late last month to fund a public education campaign related to the three ballot questions. Council Chairman Berlin Boyd said Tuesday that the Carter Malone group was contracted to implement the campaign, and that he was unaware of how the campaign was actually carried out.
The group Save Instant Run-off Memphis said in a Tuesday-night Tweet that the “landslide victories” show that voters understand and support IRV.
“Local leaders should unequivocally end obstruction of democracy and work to implement these voter led initiatives without hesitation,” the group said on Twitter. “Memphis has spoke loud and clear.”
Memphians reaffirmed their support for IRV and term limits. These landslide victories demonstrate, again, that Memphians understand and support IRV.
— saveirvmemphis (@saveirvmemphis) November 7, 2018
Memphians Vote Against Longer Term Limits, Repeal of Runoff Voting
For more coverage of Tuesday’s election results, see Jackson Baker’s report here.
