Today's election will go on with U.S. Justice Department approval after the agency signed off on voting precinct changes the Leflore County Board of Supervisors requested last week.
Election officials say the pre-clearance, which came Friday, settles concerns that the county was conducting an illegal election by sending voters to cast ballots outside the precincts where they reside. The precincts have now been realigned with newly reformed supervisor districts.
"This is another step we have taken to ensure we have a good clean election," said Edward Course, chairman of the county's Election Commission.
Course said he and the other commissioners explained the situation over the phone to Justice Department officials last week. It was only a matter of procedure since the department had already approved the county's redistricting plan, he said.
Last year, the Board of Supervisors approved the redistricting of all the county's political districts. In assigning voters to polling places this year, election commissioners assumed the precinct lines had been refitted to the new supervisor districts, when they had not. So some voters whose supervisor districts changed were rerouted to polling places outside their precincts.
The same election plan went unchallenged during the August primaries. And after the problems came to supervisors' attention last month, the board at first deadlocked on a motion to request expedited approval from the Justice Department. That decision ran counter to various state attorney general's opinions declaring precinct hopping illegal.
The request finally went through after a second vote approved it last week.
District 1 Supervisor Phil Wolfe, who made the initial motion to go to the Justice Department, says the problem came to light as early as July, but the board chose not to address it. Making a second request last week was a good idea, he said.
"It makes me feel a lot better they pre-cleared it," Wolfe said. "I just hated we had to do it at the last minute."
Today, the election will follow the same plan it did in August, and with the Justice Department's OK, there should be one less reason for candidates to contest their races should any of them get close, says board President Robert Moore.
"Everything is in proper order, and that allows the election to proceed without challenges even if it doesn't go the way everybody wants it to go," he said.
