Early voting for the Aug. 6 election begins today, July 17 and runs through Aug. 1. And voters will make big decisions for Memphis, six suburban communities, Shelby County, the state and the nation.
Some voters’ uncertainty about candidates’ backgrounds and policy platforms makes voting anxiety-inducing. Many hope or assume the contenders on the ballot will represent their interests and improve the quality of life for all constituents. But votes are often cast for candidates whose signs were most visible or slogans were most memorable.
At the Tri-State Defender, we know the city and county charters, the Tennessee State Constitution and the U.S. Constitution rarely find a place on voters’ bookshelves or nightstands, as they go to work, rear children and try to make ends meet.
To help instill confidence at the ballot box, TSD has done the homework for voters. This article explains every office on the Aug. 6 ballot, so voting decisions are informed by the job description, not a yard sign.
A brief overview of the three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. The three branches operate at the local, county, state, and national levels of government. Voters will elect representatives for each branch at all four levels.
The executive branch enforces laws under its jurisdiction. Members of this branch are top officials. Our executives in Shelby County include the mayor, sheriff, property tax assessor, trustee, county clerk and register of deeds.
The county mayor hires directors who run the county’s divisions, or departments. But the hires only become official when 13 county commissioners confirm them.
Issues that affect residents’ everyday lives, such as air emissions from data centers in South Memphis, appear on the ballot. The Shelby County Health Department, which granted the air permit for gas turbines owned by SpaceXAI, formerly xAI, is run by a division director appointed by the county mayor. Whoever wins the county mayor’s race chooses the person who enforces air quality rules throughout Shelby County.
For county executives, voters elect them directly, which means no board preapproves them. They answer only to us at the ballot box.
Positions within the legislative branch span seven cities, Memphis, Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland and Millington, on the Shelby County ballot. School board members and county commissioners are responsible for making rules and budgets.
Arlington is the only municipality on the ballot with a race for aldermen, who pass ordinances to govern their town, set its property tax rate and adopt its budget.
And school board members set district policy, adopt the schools’ budget, and hire and oversee the superintendent who runs the district’s day-to-day operation.
County commissioners propose county ordinances for local laws to govern the entire county, adopt the county budget, set the county tax rate and — as noted above — they preapprove the county mayor’s hires before appointees can take office.
When you vote for a commissioner, you also are choosing who has a say in the county’s unelected leadership, because commissioners confirm the health department director, who decides air permits and other public safety and welfare matters. And they control the department’s budget. If the data centers in South Memphis concern you, the votes you cast for county commissioners are your second check on the county’s health department.
Shelby County’s judicial branch is made up of judges who hear and decide cases, and the court clerks who assist them. Judges preside over legal cases that affect the lives of county residents — criminal trials, lawsuits, evictions, divorces, child custody and estate probate. Court clerks maintain case files and records, collect fines and fees, and process the paperwork that keeps a case from stalling.
All three branches of government, executive, legislative and judicial, repeat at the city, county, state and national levels.
At the state level, we are tasked with voting for the chief executive, the governor, and legislators, or state senators and state representatives. Our state legislators, who hold similar titles to the people in Congress working in Washington, D.C., are members of the Tennessee General Assembly in the state’s capital, Nashville, Tennessee.
Keep track of Tennessee legislators’ work in real time by watching live streams online.
Let your state senator or representative know that you’re invested in what they say and do, such as splitting one congressional district in Memphis into three, by timestamping and screengrabbing meetings you’ve watched and sharing this information when you write to them.
State legislators also shape the South Memphis data center fight: State environmental agencies must follow laws the General Assembly writes. Memphis-area representatives have pressed for independent air quality monitoring at the SpaceXAI site. The District 86 House race on the Aug. 6 ballot covers South Memphis neighborhoods closest to the gas turbines.
At the national level, called “Federal” on the ballot, Tennessee voters will choose from a roster of candidates for nine U.S. House of Representatives seats and one U.S. Senate seat. These particular candidates matter because the U.S. House holds the power to impeach a president, and the U.S. Senate decides whether to remove an impeached president from office.
If you believe candidates are handpicked on a whim by the two major political parties, you would be incorrect. The Aug. 6 ballot highlights how your voice dictates each party’s operation. Voters will choose two state executive committee members from 10 candidates. These people do not work for any branch of government, despite their “executive” title. Instead, they actually run the Democratic and Republican parties in Tennessee. They represent specific Tennessee Senate districts, and they govern internal “party members in good standing.”
According to political party bylaws, each party’s rules strictly apply to individuals who choose to associate with the party, including candidates running under the party name, delegates attending nominating conventions and local precinct officers. And state executive committee members decide party platforms, manage primary election rules and fund local grassroots campaigns. So, if you want your party to start selecting younger candidates or candidates whose platforms align with issues that matter to you, then focus on the Democratic or Republican executive committeeperson who literally helps decide which candidates end up on your ballot.
The charters and constitutions can go back on the shelf after Aug. 6 – your election homework is done.
You now know which offices write rules and adopt budgets, which ones enact laws, which ones judge disputes, and which committee runs your party. Each office touches your life in some way: your property tax bill, the budget for your child’s school, your neighbor’s case in front of a judge, or the sheriff who runs the jail. None of it is abstract but it can all be decided without you, if you do not vote in the upcoming election. Choose to decide for yourself. Cast your vote.
The yard signs and the slogans have had their say. Voting is the power we hold — but only if we show up to use it.
