Voters may get a chance to select their choice for mayor by touch.
When it sets the date for the special election for mayor, the Greenwood City Council also will decide whether to use the touch-screen voting machines or the older lever ones.
An informal polling of several council members indicates mixed reviews on the new machines.
The lever machines led to confusion in June 7, 2005, in the mayoral race between incumbent Republican Harry Smith and challenger Democrat Sheriel Perkins.
One machine in the North Greenwood precinct produced hard-to-read numbers that could have turned the election one way or the other.
In unofficial returns on election night, Perkins held a 201 vote lead over Smith, according to poll workers who counted the votes.
Yet, two days later, the Greenwood Election Commission noted that the printout from North Greenwood had been misread. As a result, the commission decided Smith the official winner by six votes.
The vote discrepancies resulted in a lawsuit. Late last month, Circuit Judge Ann Hannaford Lamar ordered a new election.
Billy Bowman, who represents the city, said the federal Help America Vote Act does not apply to municipal elections. Under HAVA most counties in Mississippi, including Leflore County changed from the lever to touch-screen machines.
The council hadn't taken any action on which voting machines to use.
When the council drafts its resolution for the special election, it will set a date, ask the U.S. Justice Department for pre-clearance of that election and decide on the type of machine to be used, the attorney explained.
"The council has 30 days from Aug. 9 to set the election," he said, adding that the election could take place as soon as Sept. 12 or as late as Oct. 3.
City Council President David Jordan of Ward 6 supports using the lever machines.
"The process started with the lever voting machines. It would be wrong to change the process and start with something else," he said.
It is important to provide an orderly process for voting that would keep confusion to a minimum, Jordan said.
He also questioned if the touchscreen system could be used for municipal elections at all.
"I don't want anybody to think it is going to be different. We're not going to throw those lever machines out," he said.
Council member Ronnie Stevenson of Ward 3, favors using the new machines.
"If we're going to using the new machines in the future, let's do it now. We might as well start," he said.
Councilman Johnny Jennings of Ward 1, doesn't care which machines were used in the special election.
"It would be nice to use that new technology. They resolved the little glitch that caused them some problems," he said.
Jennings said doubts about either type of machine should be resolved. "I'd hate for that cloud to hang over the election."
