Shelby County Early Voting Numbers Hit the Hundred Thousand Mark

                      Shelby County Early Voting Numbers hit the Hundred Thousand Mark

            232,690. That’s how many voters to cast their ballots during early voting which ended on Nov. 1 when 22,825 people showed up to vote.

 One of the early voting locations was Anointed Temple COGIC on Riverdale in East Memphis.  
 “I hate I waited until the last minute to early vote but the line is well worth it. America just cannot afford to allow Romney to win this election,” said David Waller 45. “I have a 17-year-old daughter and I can’t now nor in the near future will I be able to pay for her college education.”    
Twenty-five percent of those polled said education and student loans were one of the reasons for their choice in president. Another popular reason for choosing President Barack Obama for a second term was women’s issues.
            It is no secret the Obama’s opponent Mitt Romney has some unpopular views on issues that affect women. One of them is the idea of making abortions illegal.

            “Somewhere I heard Romney saying that rape is not reason enough for an abortion. That it was in God’s plan, said Melissa Collins, 34. “I still cannot believe he could believe something like that. For rape to be such a traumatic experience and for him to think it was God’s intention is crazy.”

Fifty-five percent of the women questioned agreed with Collins in that Romney’s stance on women’s issues such as equality and “abortion would set us back as a nation,” Collins said.

            Younger voters said the economy and job prospects influenced their vote. The unemployment rate for Shelby County is about 8 percent which is high. Recent college graduate Michael Bradsaw,25, is worried he will stay a member of that 8% longer than anticipated which will not help him once his 6 month grace period to pay his student loans is over.
     “It has been four months since I graduated and I am jobless and living with my parents,” Bradshaw said. “This is not a life I look forward to but I guess it could be worse.”        

               The city of Memphis is Democratic but the state of Tennessee is Republican and it has been this was for a while. The overall total of 1,456,824 voters in Tennessee represents the second-highest early voting turnout in Tennessee history, having exceeded the 2004 November election by more than a quarter million votes.