The town of Collierville sets its own rules about how to conduct elections. The current system is called at-large voting which means that everyone in the town votes for all the aldermen positions.

The problem with at-large voting is that majority groups are able to choose every alderman, and minority voters get none. This also makes it nearly impossible for non-white candidates to win elections here.

This is why in the history of our town, there have only ever been two Black aldermen and why there has never been an alderman or mayor that lived South of Poplar Avenue. The Supreme Court has ruled that at-large voting can be a violation of the Voting Rights Act even if the system was not designed to discriminate. There are other ways to conduct elections so that everyone gets representation. Better representation leads to better outcomes for all. 

We believe it’s time to fix our broken election laws, and it’s up to the current Board of Mayor and Aldermen to do something about it.