A precinct-by-precinct breakdown of the vote in the Memphis mayor’s race shows Mayor-elect Jim Strickland carried eight of the 10 highest turnout precincts, five of them with better than 65 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile, incumbent Mayor A C Wharton topped 40 percent of the vote in just one of the 119 precincts across the city, 31-03, the precinct that includes his home on South Parkway and that votes on election day at Glenview Community Center, 1141 S. Barksdale St.

Mayor-elect Jim Strickland, top, took eight of the top 10 precincts in terms of turnout in the mayor’s race. Outgoing Mayor A C Wharton, below, had competition precinct by precinct from all three major challengers.

top photo: Daily News File/Andrew J. Breig

bottom photo: Daily News File/Jermel Tucker

Wharton carried none of the top 10 turnout precincts.

The breakdown of the unofficial vote totals to be certified by the Shelby County Election Commission Oct. 26 was released Thursday, Oct. 15.

Strickland won with 41.5 percent of the citywide vote to 22 percent for Wharton and 18.3 percent for Harold Collins.

Overall voter turnout was 25 percent.

The precinct numbers offer a view of a mayor’s race in which each of Wharton’s three major challengers did well in different parts of the city. For Strickland, doing well was a majority – at times a two-thirds majority – of the votes. For Collins and fourth-place contender Mike Williams, doing well was between 30 and 40 percent.

The largest precinct turnout by the number of voters was in the East Memphis precinct that votes on election day at Second Baptist Church, 4680 Walnut Grove Road.

More than half of the 4,443 voters in the precinct – 2,363 citizens – cast a ballot, and 81.1 percent of those voters selected Strickland, compared to 15.1 percent for Wharton and 1.65 percent for Collins.

Wharton did a little bit better at the Davis Community Center precinct, 3371 Spottswood Ave., in the University of Memphis area, where he got 23 percent of the vote, compared to 64.3 percent for Strickland and 4.1 percent for Collins. But the turnout of 1,700 of the precinct’s 4,913 voters was less than at Second Baptist Church.

There is no standardized size for an election precinct, which makes comparisons difficult. The Downtown-Uptown precinct that votes at Greenlaw Community Center is the largest in Memphis, with 5,419 voters. Other precincts have several hundred voters by contrast.

Collins carried two of the top 10 precincts by turnout, both in southwest Memphis: the Westwood Community Center precinct, 810 Western Park Drive, and Geeter Middle School, 4649 Horn Lake Road.

Collins never cracked the 40 percent mark in any precinct. But he got close in numerous Whitehaven and South Memphis precincts, where the battle was between him and Wharton with Strickland finishing third in many of those areas.

His highest percentage was 39.6 percent at the precincts that vote at Robert R. Church School, 4100 Millbranch Road, and Winchester Elementary School, 3587 Boeingshire St.

Collins was also bolstered by a relatively higher turnout of around 33 percent in the Whitehaven precincts in particular, which is part of Collins’ council district and where he lives.

Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams, who finished fourth overall, did best in Frayser and Raleigh, where it was a battle between him and Strickland – at times a close one.

Williams' best precinct showing was the 33.9 percent of the vote he got in the Frayser precinct that votes at Word of Life Church, 1215 Floyd Ave. Strickland got 33.3 percent of the vote in that precinct, which showed an anemic overall turnout of 16.7 percent, or 333 of its 1,993 voters. Wharton was third, with 15.3 percent of the vote and Collins was close behind with 15.3 percent.

Strickland took the precinct that votes at Martin Luther King Jr. College Preparatory High School, 1530 Dellwood Ave., with 29 percent of the vote to 25.2 percent for Williams. Voter turnout in that precinct was better at 21.7 percent.