Embattled Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert filed a lawsuit against the Shelby County Election Commission over her narrow primary election loss to State Representative Joe Towns (D-Memphis), with just 126 votes deciding the election.
In her lawsuit, Halbert claims that about 1,700 absentee ballots cast during the May 5 election are “unprocessed, unresolved, uncounted, or otherwise not reflected in the certified election totals.”
The three-page lawsuit, filed last week, does not reveal how Halbert learned of the uncounted absentee ballots and asserts that the incumbent “currently lacks access to records necessary to independently verify or disprove such information.”
Halbert (pictured above), who represents herself in the lawsuit pro se, requests the Tennessee Chancery Court for Shelby County issue an immediate preservation order for materials related to the election, require these materials be made available for her to inspect, and order the “judicial review of election reconciliation procedures.”
She also asks the court to determine if “ballots remain unprocessed, unresolved, or uncounted and determine whether the number of such ballots is sufficient to materially affect the certified outcome of the election.”
Halbert’s primary election defeat seemed as though it could be the end of years of controversies that have marred her tenure in Shelby County.
The Shelby County Democrat began to grow her reputation across the Volunteer State in 2022, when reports emerged that over 35,000 citizens were experiencing unprecedented delays getting new license plates from the county. Halbert at one point closed the county offices to address the delay, during a period she was revealed to have spent vacationing in Jamaica.
In 2024, the Tennessee Comptroller audited Halbert’s office amid accusations of “incompetence and wilful neglect,” and she survived attempts to remove her by the Shelby County Commission. Efforts by the commission to remove Halbert from office continued last year, when it was granted permission to proceed by a court.
More recently, an accountant in April told the Shelby County Commission that Halbert’s office failed to provide documents that were necessary to complete the county’s annual financial audit, according to Action News 5, which reported that Halbert denied the accusation.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Wanda Halbert” by Wanda Halbert.
