Like most states, elections in Tennessee are overseen by county-level Election Commissions. Unlike most states, partisan control of every Tennessee county’s Election Commission is determined by the state legislature. With Republicans now holding narrow majorities in the State House and Senate, all 95 County Election Commissions are set to flip to Republican Control.

In the Democratic stronghold of Shelby County (containing Memphis), the new Republican commission chairman is the former head of the County Republican Party, and his “first priority” is a massive purge of the voter rolls that could remove up to 100,000 registrations.

In fairness, the county voter rolls may have a large number of delinquent registrations (e.g. voters who have moved or passed away), but Shelby County voters must be vigilant:

Critics of a purge worry that if not done judiciously, it will take voters off the rolls needlessly and might discourage voter turnout.

Voters should not have to trust a Republican Party apparatchik to “judiciously” purge voters in the state’s most reliably Democratic County. There will be enormous political pressure on him to remove as many names as possible from the rolls, even at the cost of disenfranchising legitimate voters.

Across all 95 counties, some of the new Republican election chairs will be more abusive than others. But the best way to prevent Republicans from using these positions for dirty tricks is to win back control of the legislature in 2010, putting Democrats back in control of every county Election Commission. A net pickup of just 1 House and 3 Senate seats would accomplish that.