VOTING

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as racial, even if collaterally, including the Mayor of West Memphis, Marco McClendon who addressed his concerns in a press conference last week.

“Do I think it is a racial issue? Yes,” said McClendon. “They are trying to suppress an individual’s right to vote. We already have the problem of getting African Americans getting out to the polls. Now you want to make it more dif_cult to stop those individuals because the make up of West Memphis is majority black. Almost 70 percent, more than half the people. It reminds me of when my grandparents were alive and they told me how hard it was to vote. My grandfather even had to take a test to vote. It’s easy to say racism doesn’t exist when you’ve never been a victim of it.”

Mike Ford, a fellow Democrat, held a much more congenial opinion at the same press conference.

“I do not believe this is a racial issue,” he opined. “I believe this about about denying people early access to vote in Crittenden County. That is all voters whether white, brown, black it does not matter. This was a decision made to limit access to the polls.”

West Memphis has a population of approximately 24,000, with a demographic breakdown of 62 percent black and 33 percent white. The neighboring town of Marion, the county seat, has a population of about 14,000, where the demographic is nearly the polar opposite.

The court’s decision, issued just days before early voting was set to begin statewide, af_rmed that Crittenden County Clerk Paula Brown had the authority to establish a site at the Seventh Street Church of Christ. Additionally, First Baptist Church, which had served as a polling location in the 2022 election, was con_rmed as a site for the 2024 general election.

Associate Justice Courtney Rae Hudson wrote the majority opinion, with some justices concurring in part and dissenting in part. The ruling resolved a dispute centered on whether Brown had overstepped her authority by designating a new voting site in the city.

The legal battle over voting sites began when two West Memphis residents, Shirley P. Brown and Lavonda L. Taylor, _led a lawsuit against the Crittenden County Board of Election Commissioners. They sought to have early voting held at both the Seventh Street Church and First Baptist Church, arguing that the board’s initial decision to exclude West Memphis was unlawful. The court’s ruling ensured that both locations would serve as early voting sites for the 2024 election.

As early voting continues, the county appears poised to surpass its previous turnout levels, marking a signi_cant moment for voter engagement in the region.