Early voting opened across Tennessee yesterday. In Shelby County, 26 polling locations are now accepting voters for the November 3 presidential election, and they’ll stay open through October 29. Lines formed before doors opened at several sites, including the Shelby County Election Commission’s main office on Mullins Station Road and the Abundant Grace Fellowship Church on East Shelby Drive.
This is the most anticipated election in a generation. It’s also the most complicated one from a security standpoint. Shelby County election officials, Memphis police, and private security providers are all trying to answer the same question: how do you keep polling places safe when the country is angrier, sicker, and more divided than it has been in decades?
The Threat Picture
Start with what’s different about 2020.
COVID-19 is still here. Shelby County’s case counts are climbing again as the second wave takes hold. Every polling location needs social distancing protocols, sanitization stations, and a plan for what happens when a voter shows up visibly symptomatic. Poll workers, many of them elderly volunteers, are working behind plexiglass and wearing masks for 10-hour shifts.
Then there’s the political temperature. National rhetoric about election fraud, poll watchers, and contested results has put every election official in the country on edge. Tennessee law permits “poll watchers” designated by political parties to observe the voting process, which is a normal part of elections. What’s not normal is the level of anxiety around what poll watching might look like this year. The Shelby County Election Commission has been fielding calls from voters who are worried about intimidation at the polls.
Memphis has also been dealing with its worst year of violent crime in recorded history. The city broke its homicide record in September with three months still remaining. That backdrop of violence makes the security question at polling places feel more urgent than it might in a typical election year.
26 Sites, 26 Security Plans
Shelby County operates 26 early voting locations spread across Memphis and the surrounding suburbs. They range from churches and community centers to government buildings and libraries. Each one presents a different security profile.
The Election Commission’s main office on Mullins Station Road in East Memphis has controlled access and existing security infrastructure. A site like the Memphis Public Library’s Whitehaven branch on East Shelby Drive sits in a neighborhood that has seen elevated violent crime all year. The Dave Wells Community Center in South Memphis, the Burch Library in Collierville, the Bartlett Recreation Center: each has its own parking situation, its own foot traffic patterns, its own relationship with the surrounding neighborhood.
The Shelby County Election Commission, led by Administrator Linda Phillips, has been coordinating with MPD on election security since August. The standard approach is to have uniformed officers available at or near polling locations, with the ability to respond quickly if something goes wrong. For early voting, where the sites are open for over two weeks, that’s a sustained commitment of police resources at a time when MPD is already stretched thin.
Private security companies have picked up some of the gap. Several early voting locations and Election Day sites have contracts with security firms to provide unarmed guards for crowd management, parking lot monitoring, and queue control. The guards aren’t there to enforce election law. They’re there to keep the property safe and the lines orderly.
COVID Protocols at the Polls
The Tennessee Secretary of State’s office issued guidance in September for COVID-safe voting. Shelby County has adopted those guidelines and added a few of its own.
Voters will see floor markings for six-foot distancing in line. Hand sanitizer dispensers are stationed at entrances and exits. Voting booths are being wiped down between users at high-volume sites. Poll workers have been given face shields in addition to masks. Single-use styluses are available for touchscreen machines so voters don’t have to use their fingers.
For security personnel at polling locations, COVID adds a layer of complexity to every interaction. A guard who needs to approach a voter about a disturbance is now doing so at a distance, through a mask, while trying to be heard in a room where everyone is also masked. De-escalation is harder when people can’t read facial expressions.
The bigger concern is what happens if a voter refuses to wear a mask. Tennessee’s mask mandate applies in Shelby County, yet Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett has said that no voter should be turned away for not wearing a mask. That creates a gray area that falls squarely on the people working the door: how do you enforce a health directive without disenfranchising a voter? The Election Commission’s guidance is to offer a mask to any unmasked voter and, if they refuse, to allow them to vote while maintaining distance from others. Security guards at these sites need to know that policy cold.
The Voter Intimidation Question
Federal law under the Voting Rights Act prohibits voter intimidation. Tennessee state law does too, under T.C.A. 2-19-101. The penalties are real: fines and jail time. The challenge is defining where legitimate poll watching ends and intimidation begins.
In Shelby County, authorized poll watchers must be credentialed by a political party or candidate and must follow specific rules about where they can stand and what they can do. They can observe. They cannot challenge voters, photograph ballots, or engage voters in conversation about their choices.
What election officials and law enforcement are watching for is something less formal: groups of people gathering near polling places with the intent to discourage certain voters from casting ballots. In a county where the presidential race isn’t particularly competitive (Shelby County has voted Democratic in every presidential election since 2000), the concern is less about partisan operatives and more about general disorder.
MPD Director Michael Rallings has assigned officers to election security details, though the department hasn’t released specific numbers. The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Western District of Tennessee has designated an election fraud and voter intimidation coordinator, following standard practice for presidential elections.
What Property Managers Near Polling Sites Should Do
If your property is adjacent to or near a polling location, the next three weeks require preparation. Foot traffic will increase significantly. Parking lots at shopping centers near polling sites will fill up with voters who couldn’t find parking at the actual location. That’s happened in every major Shelby County election.
Here’s a practical checklist:
Parking management. If your lot is within walking distance of a polling site, expect overflow parking. Decide now whether you’ll allow it, restrict it, or manage it. Put up signage early. If you choose to restrict, have a plan for enforcement that doesn’t create a scene on the evening news.
Increased foot traffic on sidewalks and through common areas. Voters walking to and from polling sites will cut through adjacent properties. Make sure your liability coverage is current and your walkways are clear of tripping hazards. This is basic, yet it gets overlooked.
Protests and demonstrations. Tennessee law allows political expression near polling places as long as it occurs beyond a 100-foot boundary from the entrance. If your property is across the street from a polling location, you could see sign-wavers, megaphones, and occasionally heated arguments. Talk to your security provider about how they’ll handle it.
Extended hours. Early voting sites in Shelby County are open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. On Election Day, polls run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Your security coverage may need to extend to match.
Communication with tenants. If you manage a multi-tenant commercial property, send a memo to your tenants this week. Let them know about the nearby polling site, the expected increase in traffic, and your plan for managing it. Tenants appreciate being told rather than surprised.
Election Day Itself
November 3 will be the peak. Shelby County typically sees its highest voter turnout in presidential elections, and 2020 is expected to exceed any recent cycle. The combination of intense national interest, expanded mail-in voting, and early voting may spread the load, yet Election Day will still draw hundreds of thousands of voters to the polls across the county.
Security at Election Day sites follows the same principles as early voting, with higher intensity. More officers, more guards, more volunteers. The risk window is concentrated: 12 hours of voting, followed by ballot counting that could extend into the early morning hours.
For businesses and property managers, the day itself is less of a concern than the days after. If the presidential race is contested, if results aren’t clear on election night, the potential for protests and demonstrations rises significantly. Memphis saw sustained protests after the George Floyd killing in May and June. The city knows what large-scale demonstrations look like. The question is whether it will see them again in November.
Plan for three scenarios: a clear result with a calm transition, a contested result with organized protests, and a contested result with disorganized unrest. The first scenario requires normal operations. The second requires your security provider to have a protest response plan. The third requires a conversation with your insurance carrier.
Twenty-six early voting sites are open now. Two hundred Election Day precincts will open on November 3. Every one of them is a property with a parking lot, a front door, and people who need to get in and out safely. That’s a security operation, whether anyone wants to call it one or not.