Live updates: Memphis turnout is sluggish on Election day as voters head to the polls

Election day turnout appeared sluggish across Memphis Tuesday as the Shelby County primary season drew to a close.

Polls opened at 7 a.m. and were scheduled to close at 7 p.m. as voters, after two weeks of early voting, finished deciding who should be the Democratic nominees for Shelby County mayor and District Attorney General and a slew of other positions.

However, it appeared that much of the voting had already been completed during early voting given the low turnout seen throughout the day on Tuesday.

At about 10 a.m. Springdale Baptist Church — in Vollintine-Evergreen between Jackson and Chelsea avenues — saw campaign workers outnumbering the voters. Among the 52 people who had voted at Springdale early Tuesday morning was Cornelia Jenkins.

Jenkins said she had voted in every election since she was 21 and now she was 80. She declined to say whom she voted for or what she found most important.

For Rutha Jones, voting is also mandatory and the Shelby County Democratic mayoral primary was what brought her out to the polls.

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"I think he [Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris] has done a good job," Jones said. She did not remember who she voted for in the District Attorney's race, but she saw it as a vote against Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich.

"She's done her job and it's time for her to move on," Jones said Tuesday morning.

At about 2 p.m, at Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church in South Memphis on South Parkway, voting was light. There were five poll workers inside. The four campaign workers outside were busy looking for voters.

Keith Wilkins, supporter of D.A. candidate Janika White, said he and other campaign workers counted about 36 people who had voted by 2 p.m. "We are hoping for a last-minute rush," Wilkins said.

Four miles away, in another section of South Memphis, the polling place at Glenview Community Center saw a steady stream of voters throughout the mid-afternoon, with voters walking out of the location with handfuls of brochures from the volunteers handing them out in the parking lot.

Jericka Webster, 27, said she put a lot of time into deciding who she wanted to vote for in the primaries before heading to Glenview. She looked to social media to find information on the races, and also went to Memphis People’s Convention in April.

Webster, a community activist in Memphis, is concerned that there isn’t enough of a conversation around primary and local elections in the city.

“I came out and voted today because voting is very important and this election is very, very important because it’s a local election, Webster said. “I would like to ensure that we are taken care of locally here in the city, in Memphis.”

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Webster declined to share who she voted for in the race for Democratic nomination for District Attorney or Shelby County mayor but said she voted for Britney Thornton in the District 10 Shelby County Commission race.

“I do community work and Britney is always on the ground running, she’s always in the community,” Webster said.

Calvin Lacy, 59, used the app ActiVote when deciding who to vote for in the primaries.

“It tells me whose all running, it gives me their philosophy, what they plan to do, it gives me their background,” Lacy said. “It gives me more in the tune of who are they and what are they are talking about, without the soundbite. This gives me the facts. And I want the facts, I don’t need the hyperbole, I don’t need anyone shouting at me. Give me the facts.”

Lacy, a secondary math teacher, voted for Ken Moody in the Shelby County Democratic mayoral primary and for Linda Harris in the District Attorney primary.

“I think Lee [Harris] is a guy who got settled into his position and now he’s just going along to get along,” Lacy said about the mayor election. “He’s not trying to shake up anything. I’m trying to recall what major initiative he’s come up with, and I can’t really see how he made a difference with us. It’s time for a change.”

In the DA race, Lacy saw his vote as a vote against incumbent Amy Weirich, a Republican, because of what he sees as the office choosing who to prosecute and not prosecute based on how much money the person has or how famous the case is. Lacy pointed to the recent Pamela Moses situation as one of his reasons for thinking this.

“I think somehow they are picking and choosing who to prosecute to the fullest extent,” Lacy said. “…I need justice to be for all, not just some who have money”

Mark Russell contributed reporting.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis primary 2022: Live updates