ballots – Memphis Flyer

Never say die — particularly if you’re talking about that unkillable scourge of local elections, the bogus ballot.

That’s the term of art for those privately prepared and printed broadsheets containing the mugs of assorted candidates that various entrepreneurs pass out to voters at election time.

The balloteers charge the favored candidates a pretty penny — actually, several thousand dollars apiece — for the honor of appearing on these sample ballots as “endorsees.”

It’s all a matter of commerce. Not much actual evaluation is involved, with the exception, perhaps, of a few — a very few — candidates who get included gratis, perhaps to salve the consciences of the money-making balloteers.

In recent years, critics of the process — ranging from occasional candidate John Marek to the Shelby County Democratic Party itself — have gone to court in an effort to bring things to a halt, mainly because several of the ballot-mongering entrepreneurs have included misleading imagery and language making it appear that their profit-making sheets are actually the legitimate handiwork of the Democratic Party.

The plaintiffs had considerable difficulty getting hearings on the matter because so many local judges were customers of the ballot makers.

But at length, a special judge, William Acree, was brought in from Jackson and issued a permanent injunction against further publication of bogus ballots that simulated Democratic Party efforts.

Such constraints as resulted, including still-pending action against balloteer Greg Grant, have slowed to a halt, however, for several reasons: Judge Acree has retired, and the litigants who sought the injunction are now hors de combat.

Plaintiff Marek, a lawyer whose efforts have been pro bono, is seeking to withdraw, and his partner in litigation, Jake Brown, has already done so as of last week, having been cut loose by the local Democratic Party, which has opted under current party chair Lexie Carter to pay for no more litigation.

Meanwhile, with elections approaching in August and November, privately printed sample ballots are out there again in force, some of them heeding the injunction against feigning Democratic Party involvement, and some not. (See image of ballot from entrepreneur M. Latroy Alexandria-Williams, whose “Memphis Democratic Club” and “Shelby County Democratic Club” are shell organization with no real existence.)

And the old saw that “you get what you pay for” still reigns among local candidates for office.

The outlook for proposed new voting machines looks more muddled than ever after a virtual telemeeting of the Shelby County Election Commission (SCEC) Wednesday that was marred by the frequently indistinct audio transmission.

But numerous testimonies from participating citizens were noted, most of them being read into the record from written statements supplied to the SCEC. The great majority of comments were in favor of equipment allowing hand-marked paper ballots, with arguments ranging from cost savings to transparency to an alleged greater safety factor relative to touch-screen alternatives during the coronavirus pandemic.

The roster of citizens calling in or contributing statements ranged far and wide and included sitting public officials and a bevy of well-known activists.

Originally, the five election commissioners were scheduled to vote Wednesday on a recommendation by Election Administrator Linda Phillips of a specific machine vendor, but a vote was postponed to allow the meeting to substitute for a previously promised public comment meeting that had been sidetracked by the onset of the epidemic.

It is taken for granted that Administrator Phillips favors machine-marked voting instruments outfitted so as to allow for a paper trail, but no details on her preference were presented Wednesday.

At the end of the meeting, Commissioner Brent Taylor, one of the three Republican representatives on the five-member commission, moved to postpone any voting until whatever turns out to be the Phillips/staff recommendation can be presented to County Mayor Lee Harris, who can then certify it and call for a vote by the County Commission, which has the responsibility of funding the new machines.

That strategy, which was adopted by the Election Commission, would not directly alter Phillips’ choice, regarded as likely to be endorsed by the SCEC, but it would enable the results of the SCEC-ordered RFP (request for proposal) to be made public, and it would give the County Commission, which had previously voted in favor of hand-marked paper ballots, some means of expressing its collective mind — and possibly its will — on the matter.

As it happened, the County Commission, which was meeting in committee simultaneously with the Election Commission, had on its agenda yet another resolution endorsing hand-cast paper ballots but agreed to send the issue down to its Monday public meeting without a recommendation after hearing of the Election Commission’s action.