The Shelby County Election Commission (SCEC) is holding two informational sessions on candidate qualifications this week at the O.C. Pleasant Election Operations Center located at 980 Nixon Drive. The first session will be at 7 p.m. tomorrow (5.9.19) and the second session will be at 10 a.m. Saturday (5.11.19).
Campaigning for office is not a part of the program. “The sole purpose is to educate people about the procedure to qualify for candidacy, and their responsibilities with regards to campaign finance requirements,” said Linda Phillips, administrator of elections for SCEC.
Each session lasts about an hour and is completely non-partisan. “The presentations are in a classroom format,” Ms. Phillips said.
Petitions to run for office in the Memphis City elections will be available starting May 20. Petitions will continue to be issued until the qualifying deadline, which is noon July 18. Petitions will be issued from both SCEC offices.
Though it is not necessary to register to attend the classes, those who do will be guaranteed a printed packet of information.
“If there’s a lot of interest, we may not have enough printed packets to go around if people don’t let us know they’ll be attending,” Ms. Phillips said.
To register, contact Carol Collinsworth at 222-1203, or email her at carol.collinsworth@shelbycountytn.gov
