Harold Ford Still A Resident Of TN, According To Voting Records

Former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D)
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Harold Ford, Jr., may say he’s been a New Yorker for the last three years, but voting registration records show he registered to vote there just three months ago.

As far as his native Tennessee is concerned, his “home” is a 1-bedroom apartment in Memphis. Elections officials in Ford’s former hometown told the Memphis Commercial Appeal their records list Ford’s primary residence as 415 S. Front St, Unit 12 in downtown Memphis. Ford voted early in 2008 in Shelby County and used his Memphis address to do it, according to the records. Ford has said he moved to New York City in 2006 and has since registered to vote there.

The New York Observer reported last week that Ford registered to vote in New York on Nov. 23, 2009. Ford says he considered himself a New Yorker three years before that.

Shelby County, TN Election Administrator Richard Holden told the Commercial Appeal that it can take time for voter registration changes to move from state to state, so the active records Holden has in his books could eventually be canceled as Ford’s New York registration matriculates through Albany, NY and Nashville, TN before finally reaching the Memphis-area elections board. Holden said that Ford never requested to be removed from the Shelby County rolls, but acknowledged that such requests are rare.

The board of assessor’s office in the county told the Tennessee paper that Ford still owned the $170,000 apartment listed as his primary residence in Memphis. Tennessee law says voters can only have one “primary” home to vote in the state.

Confusion over the Ford family’s residency isn’t new to the Shelby County office. From the Commercial Appeal report:

In 2007, Ford’s father cast his ballot in Memphis although he hadn’t lived in the Bluff City in years. But to take advantage of a homestead tax break, Harold Ford Sr. also told Florida officials that his $2.5 million home on Miami Beach’s Fisher Island was his primary and permanent residence beginning in 2007.

Ford’s eligibility to vote in Memphis was questionable, but nothing came of the matter.

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