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State and Local Politics Blog

The Shelby County Voter Alliance is More Than the Name Implies

When voter participation is suppressed, bad things happen to good people. One way we turn it around is by equipping every neighborhood association and non-profit, every congregation and union in the County, with what they need to help their members overcome the barriers separating them from the ballot box.  The Voter Alliance is a c3 civic engagement table. That means it pools resources, research, and tools to help partners boost voter turnout. The Alliance is in close collaboration with CivicTN, but the Shelby County Voter Alliance (SCVA) is more than its name implies.

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The SCVA was the brainchild of James Jones a Union leader. It is a non-partisan organization that does not endorse candidates or political partners. The Anchor Partners of the group are MICAH, The Memphis Branch NAACP, Stand for Children, Memphis For All, The Memphis & West Tennessee Labor Council, Teamsters Local 667, the UAW and the A. Philip Randolph Institute. The SCVA’s mission is “To build power by working with Shelby County organizations to dramatically increase voter engagement and turnout using data driven strategies and civic education.” The Alliance formed in August of 2020 to address voter issues and streamline the work that the different organizations were doing separately. Mr. Jones thought that if they worked together, they could maximize their impact.

During the 2020 election cycle the SCVA worked to register voters, mailed postcards encouraging people to vote, phone banked voters, canvassed neighborhoods, arranged rides to the polls and held poll parties. The SCVA’s focus was driving up voter participation.  Within their ranks the partners submitted their membership rolls and had them analyzed against the voter rolls. The data gave them an in-depth look at their members and helped them develop strategies to maximize voter participation in their ranks.

When the SCVA looked back on their success in the 2020 election cycle they decided to stay together and work towards the 2022 election cycle. In this non-election year, the group has undertaken several initiatives. They have begun to host Membership Educational Meetings once per quarter with the next one happening August 11th. The upcoming Membership Educational Meeting is entitled “The Power of the Shelby County D.A.” and will focus on the D.A. responsibilities, how the office impacts the community and the Pervis Payne case. These meetings are part of the educational component of the SCVA. The Alliance also decided to use their skills to help with the Vaccination effort by hosting phone banks and doing neighborhood canvassing around pop-up vaccination sites. Their vaccination efforts earned them a visit from the 2nd Gentlemen Doug Emhoff on June sixteenth.

As previously mentioned, the SCVA is focused on the 2022 election cycle with the intent to drive up voter participation in Shelby County, educate the citizens on the issues and offices that the ballot will impact and, in the meantime, encourage people in under vaccinated areas to get vaccinated. The Shelby County Voter Alliance and its membership are committed to these goals because we know that discouraging voter participation is part of the conservative plan for our state.

If you would like to participate in our next Membership Educational Meeting, please email Ian Randolph at ianrndlph@yahoo.com for the link.

If you would like to help in the vaccination effort please visit the Vaccine Campaign at this website: Memphis For All