The chairs of the Shelby County Election Commission and Shelby County Commission have come up with a compromise on voting machines that they hope will lead to the end of litigation between their two bodies, Election Chairman Brent Taylor announced Monday.

Whether that will happen hinges on the votes of the members of the two commissions, with election commissioners voting in support of the plan Monday night. 

The compromise is simple, Taylor described Monday: Voters at the polls will be offered the choice between using a ballot marking device or filling out a hand-marked paper ballot. 

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“What both the County Commission and Election Commission want to make sure of is the election workers do not couch this in a way where we’re exhibiting a preference to where they cast their ballot,” Taylor said.

Later that day, Taylor announced his resignation from the Election Commission and that he would be announcing his plans in the coming week. A Republican who has served on both the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Board of Commissioners, he is expected to seek further public office. 

Taylor said the proposed compromise arose from conversations with County Commission Chairman Willie Brooks Jr., who was not present at the news conference Monday in which Taylor announced the proposed solution.

The Election Commission sued the County Commission in September 2021 after the commission twice rejected resolutions to purchase voting machines for the county, sending resounding messages that its members favored hand-marked paper ballots over ballot marking devices.

If the proposed compromise concocted by Taylor and Brooks is approved, it would require the commission to purchase the same machines it earlier rejected, machines from vendor Election Systems & Software, LLC, known as ES&S, one of the four election equipment companies certified to sell in Tennessee.

The Election Commission wants the $5.9 million contract funded by March 21, which would allow time to receive the equipment, train employees and possibly allow the equipment to be used in the August and November elections, Taylor said. The $5.9 million amount would likely be lowered, since the Election Commission has received some state funding.

The Election Commission would also ask for attorney’s fees to be paid by the County Commission.

Taylor said the Election Commission would also be happy to demonstrate the machines for county commissioners, as election staff did Monday for members of the media.

The ballot marking machines will not allow voters to overvote. They are accessible for voters with disabilities.

The machine used to count votes can tabulate both printouts from the ballot marking machines and paper ballots that have been filled out by hand. It will also catch if someone has overvoted on a paper ballot, asking the voter if they want to move forward with casting their ballot or stop and go back.

After the ballot (both those filled out on the machine and those filled out by hand) is scanned, recorded and tabulated, it drops down into a secure ballot box.

“Our goal is twofold," Taylor said. "We want to make sure we can get adequate voting equipment in place in time for these big elections coming up this year. Secondly, we want to spare the taxpayer of Shelby County any further expense related to lawyers and legal fees, because we think we can resolve this.”

Later Monday, members of the election commission voted to support the proposal, with Commissioner Bennie Smith, also an election security expert, recusing since he had recently met with an employee of ES&S. 

Brooks, chairman of the County Commission, said he hoped to bring the proposal before the County Commission soon, but also had other issues to solve such as funding to notify voters of new precincts and voting locations. 

"I wanted to make sure we were hearing the words of the voters in terms of whether paper ballots were the best way to go," Brooks said. “If we can agree on having a paper audit trail and agree that voters have the option to choose when they go to vote whether they have a paper ballot, I think that would be good. Now the type of equipment that meets the expectations, I don’t have that expertise, but I am asking that a demonstration be presented to the County Commission.”

Katherine Burgess covers county government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2799 or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.