Some Leflore County voters caught between new districts and old precinct lines would not get to choose their county supervisor if the general election were held today, according to one incumbent.
District 1 Supervisor Phil Wolfe says he and other board members are not on the ballot in precincts they absorbed after a recent redistricting plan was passed.
"We need to get this right before the elections run," Wolfe told his fellow supervisors Monday. "We have people out here who can't vote. And they might not even if they could, but the fact is they're being disenfranchised."
Wolfe said precinct lines should be shifted to match supervisor districts reshaped in the redistricting process.
But Willie Perkins, attorney for the Board of Supervisors, says precinct changes do not have to follow supervisor districts. "Each one has its own separate map," Perkins said.
The problem is not that precinct lines are outdated but that the existing polling places have not been set up to handle district changes, Perkins explained. Board President Robert Moore called the issue a "technical question."
This was the second time in a week that a technical question about the upcoming election have been raised. Incumbent supervisors who are running as independents expressed concerns that their names were listed as many as four blank spaces below their challengers on the ballot. But the Election Commission, backed by Perkins, contends that the county ballot must as close as possible follow the official format handed down by the state.
With the ballots already printed and samples available at the Circuit Clerk's Office, supervisors said they must act quickly to make any necessary changes before the election.
The board will address the possible incongruence at a special meeting with the county's Election Commission scheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesday. A possible solution discussed Monday is to add a number subprecincts for various supervisor races.
Also Monday, the board approved:
- A request to rezone 22 acres of Leflore County Country Club land from agricultural to commercial use. The club plans to sell about 8.5 acres to Jimmy Sanders Inc., a seed and fertilizer company.
Donnie Dickerson, a company representative, assured supervisors that there would be no nitrate or anhydrous ammonia, two potentially explosive compounds used in fertilizers, handled or produced on site. The chemicals that will be used are mostly noncorrosive, and the company will take appropriate precautions to prevent contamination in the local environment, Dickerson said.
Wolfe's Mississippi Alarm Co. and Jimmy Sanders Inc. lease office space in the same building along the U.S. 82-49 Bypass.
"They're a real good, clean, reputable company," Wolfe said. "They keep things up, and they haven't had any problems at all."
- A $5,000 contribution to the Roy Martin Delta Band Festival, which will take place Friday, Dec. 5.
- The purchase of the Maxey property near Swiftown for $17,500. The property is used as a voting precinct.
