← Back to Shelby County, Tennessee: Election on 2026-05-05
Contest for Register of Deeds
County
Shelby County
primary - Partisan - Shelby County Register of Deeds
About this office
The duty of the Register of Deeds Office is to record and preserve all instruments meeting the minimum Tennessee State law requirements for recording. Some records filed in our office are Warranty Deeds, Mortgages, Quit Claims, Court Decrees, Mortgage Assignments, Affidavit of Heirships, Liens, and Military Discharges. Once recorded and scanned, these documents are available for public inspection on the Shelby County Register of Deeds website at https://register.shelby.tn.us
Term length: 4 years.
This role calls for
- Records management of deeds, mortgages, liens, plats, and other instruments affecting title to land in a high-volume metropolitan county.
- Working knowledge of Tennessee recording statutes, the recording-tax schedule, and the increasingly-electronic submission workflow used by title companies, lenders, and attorneys.
- Accuracy and indexing discipline — an error in the register's records can cloud title for years.
- Public-access service: the records are open, and the office serves both professional users (title, legal, financial) and individual property owners.
- Budget and technology literacy for maintaining a searchable, modern record system.
Derived from the office's statutory duties and operational reality. Candidate summaries below map each candidate's documented experience to these requirements.
Campaigns
Democratic Primary
2 candidates
Willie Brooks
👍
👎
🤡
😡
🤷
Brooks served as Chairman of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners, demonstrating governance experience relevant to budget and technology literacy for modern record systems. His tenure on the Memphis Charter Commission and City School Board provides a background in public-access service for diverse professional and individual users. As a retired HR Program Management Advisor at FedEx, he managed complex corporate compensation programs, indicating strong records management discipline applicable to high-volume indexing.
Shelandra Y. Ford
👍
👎
🤡
😡
🤷
Ford served as Register of Deeds from 2018 to 2022, upgrading systems for e-filing and creating a property fraud alert program. She previously worked six and a half years as principal court clerk at General Sessions and currently serves as Deputy Treasurer for the City of Memphis. Her background includes over twenty-four years in Shelby County government roles. Bio does not indicate specific knowledge of Tennessee recording statutes, detailed indexing discipline metrics, or current technology literacy beyond past e-filing upgrades.