Two Leflore County supervisors on Wednesday blocked a request to seek emergency pre-clearance from the U.S. Justice Department that would conform voting precinct lines to new supervisor districts.
District 1 Supervisor Phil Wolfe said that going to the Justice Department is the only way to make certain the that county has done everything possible to insure that no votes cast during the Nov. 4 general election are thrown out because they were made out of precinct.
"Then, we would at least have made the attempt and addressed every concern out there," said Wolfe, who made the motion.
But Willie Perkins, attorney for the Board of Supervisors, said voters whose supervisor districts have changed can cross precinct lines to cast ballots in their re-spective races.
"Folks in West Greenwood can legally cross into North Greenwood in order to vote," Perkins explained.
The disagreement flared into a heated exchange between Wolfe and Perkins that ended in a 2-2 draw, and Wolfe's motion died. District 5 Supervisor Arvel Burden voted for it, District 4 Supervisor Wayne Self opposed it, and District 3 Supervisor Jimmie Barnes was absent.
The board called Wednesday's special meeting with county election commissioners to discuss Wolfe's claim that discrepancies in the precinct and supervisor district lines were creating a situation that might disenfranchise certain voters. Only one commissioner, Deveda Dillon, was in attendance.
The main area affected is the West Greenwood precinct, which normally votes at the courthouse. Some voters there were transferred from supervisor District 3 to District 1 and some to District 4, but the Election Commission did not include the District 1 or District 4 races on the ballot at the courthouse.
Instead, the the affected voters will now cast their ballots in North Greenwood, where the Election Commission has set up subprecincts to handle the new voters.
There is some disagreement over whether those who are affected can vote in a separate precinct, though.
John Pittman Hey, who video tapes most Board of Supervisors meetings for his Taxpayers' Channel, says any of those votes will be illegal and likely thrown out. Hey claims the Election Commission reshaped precinct lines without Justice Department approval after they had settled on redistricting plans for supervisor and justice court districts.
"Just because the Election Commission changed the precinct lines illegally doesn't mean it's so," Hey told the board. "If a person from West Greenwood is told to go to North Greenwood and they do vote there, it's an illegal vote. That's not their precinct."
Hey referred to the situation in West Greenwood, and he also has documented that the Central Greenwood ballot excludes the state Senate District 14 race between Sen. Bunky Huggins, R-Greenwood, and his Democratic challenger Mark Burton.
Hey, who was hired to sort out election confusion in Humphreys County after the August primaries, advised that the best option is to go to the Justice Department. "If the board can adopt the changed precincts and get them cleared, then that could possibly solve the problem," he said.
But Robert Moore, the board's president, said the county handled the last election with new districts the same way.
"I've been around for a while, and I've been through redistricting," Moore said. "We did this once before, and I think we did it the same way."
Moore said Hey's assessment is only a matter of opinion, but one that Wolfe followed by formulating the motion to approach the Justice Department so that "we won't be conducting an illegal election."
Circuit Clerk Trey Evans, who attended the meeting, said this morning that seeking emergency pre-clearance might not be a good idea.
"Even if we get an emergency order to allow the November race, that would almost make it appear that the primaries were conducted in error," Evans explained. "If that were the case, then everybody who was defeated in primaries would have, I guess, a second bite of the apple if they chose to pursue some kind of election contest."
Evans said the Election Commission has notified the affected voters of their new polling places outside their designated precincts. He and election commissioners are trying to make the changes as clear to voters as possible, he said, and poll workers will be instructed to inform voters if they come to the wrong venue, he said.
"Every effort will be made by the election manager and the poll workers to send them to the right precinct, but some people are going to be stubborn. They'll want to vote where they've always voted."
Evans said the situation created confusion during the August primaries.
"The primaries were extremely difficult due to the change," he said. "We did have a lot of people going back and forth from the area. … There were several people who just didn't vote at all."
