MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A pivotal court ruling that was made Wednesday afternoon could affect thousands of local voters at the polls.
It reverses most of the court order issued against the Shelby County Election Commission last week. A lot of people who would have been allowed to vote normally will now have to cast provisional ballots, which is the opposite of what that order issued in chancery court.
It was part of a judges ruling after the NAACP sued the commission and accused if of suppressing voters.
The suit concerned thousands of people with incomplete registrations who hadn’t been told they could fix the forms and vote. The order compelled the commission to send those notices and allow the same thing on election day.
Meaning someone could fix their registration at the polls and cast a regular ballot.
The Commission appealed and largely wan that appeal on Wednesday.
They still have to send the notices. But voters with registration issues on election day will have to cast provisional ballots.
The Commission says that cuts down on the chances of voter fraud since a clever person could potentially use different registrations at multiple polling locations by changing up the address each time.
The Tennessee Black Voter Project was also a plaintiff in that lawsuit. It’s unclear what it or the NAACP will do in response.
