Itta Bena officials are working on a remedy to ensure residents of an area that was annexed by the city in 2014 are properly registered to vote in future municipal elections.
Leflore County Circuit Clerk Elmus Stockstill, the county’s top election official, testified in a trial this month that he was not made aware of this annexation and therefore did not know these residents were to be added to the poll books.
This means any residents of the annexed area who voted in Itta Bena’s past two municipal elections did so by affidavit ballot — while still paying city taxes.
The Board of Aldermen is expected to vote Monday during a special called meeting on whether to adopt the annexation, City Clerk Barbara Applon said. The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. at City Hall.
Adopting the annexation means the board will officially recognize the enlargement of the city’s boundaries, Applon said. This will start the process in identifying what ward will contain the annexed area and then eventually giving these voting-age residents an opportunity to get registered.
Applon said another reason for the board vote is that she cannot locate the minutes for the board meeting in which the annexation was approved.
According to a copy of the city’s petition to enlarge its boundaries, which was filed in Leflore County Chancery Court, Itta Bena’s board adopted an ordinance to annex land during a meeting in April 2013. A hearing for the consideration of the annexation was held in January 2014, with notices placed in various public places in areas that would later be annexed, including the Dollar General store, the Fresh Idea Barber Shop and the Valley Apartment Homes complex, according to court filings.
Only one person showed up at the hearing, Teresa Mitchell of Capricorn’s Internet Cafe. She asked the court to extend the timing for five days in order to allow the court to receive any written objections, which the court approved.
Chancellor Catherine Farris-Carter, the presiding judge, approved Itta Bena’s request for annexation in February 2014.
The portion of land that the city added is located along County Road 507, also known as Sunflower Road. It includes several apartment complexes, in addition to Valley Homes, such as Sun Manor Apartments, a church, and several businesses. About 150 people live in the annexed area, about 100 of whom are believed to be of voting age, according to city officials.
Former Mayor Thelma Collins, former City Attorney Willie Perkins Sr. and former City Clerk Lacheronda Spivey all filed the appropriate paperwork to the chancery court, as indicated by the court filings.
However, because Stockstill was not made aware of the annexation, voting-age residents in the area were not added to the poll books.
This misstep has created a mess involving the city’s past two municipal elections. In 2017 and earlier this summer, residents of the annexed area who voted did so by affidavit ballots since their names were not on the poll books.
And all the while these residents have been paying city taxes, according to Tax Assessor Leroy Ware, essentially creating a de facto system of taxation without representation.
Circuit Judge Jeff Weill, who was presiding over a mayoral election contest trial between Patricia Young and incumbent Mayor Reginald Freeman, said he found this revelation disturbing and called it a “300-pound gorilla” that had been dropped into the court’s lap.
Stockstill, a lifelong resident of Itta Bena, testified that he was not made aware of this annexation until June 9 of this year, a day after the general election.
In an interview, Stockstill said Itta Bena election officials had come to the courthouse June 9 to canvass votes. A question about the annexation somehow came up, Stockstill said, and he was informed by Ware about the annexation and was provided a copy of the annexation petition.
Had Stockstill been made aware of this news in 2014, he said he would have been able to add the streets of the annexed area into the Statewide Election Management System, offering residents of the annexed area a chance to register.
Before the circuit clerk can do that, however, he must receive information from the city’s leaders about the ward in which the annexed area will be placed.
Stockstill said he was not sure who was supposed to inform him of the annexation, but he speculated that duty would have fallen on the clerk, who at the time was Spivey. Asked why the issue of the annexation never came up during Itta Bena’s 2017 municipal election, Stockstill could not say why.
Ware said he was aware of Itta Bena’s annexation. He attended the hearing in 2014 and knew that the chancery court had received a copy of the petition once the annexation was approved. He said the annexation process was conducted properly until it came to the point of notifying Stockstill.
“It just looks like they may have forgotten to do it or something,” Ware said. “I don’t think it was any malicious intent. It was one of those things that fell through the cracks.”
Collins, who was last mayor of Itta Bena from 2013 to 2017, said that typically after municipal elections, the election commissioners go to City Hall to audit the poll books and add names of any registered residents who were left off. When asked why Applon couldn’t find the minutes of the 2013 board meeting in which city leaders approved the annexation ordinance, Collins said she didn’t know. She could only say that it should be filed somewhere in City Hall.
Collins also questioned why the city’s current board will consider a vote on adopting the annexation, since the annexation has already been approved by the chancery court, as indicated by the court filings.
“The ball dropped somewhere, and it is unfortunate,” she said.
Regarding Young’s mayoral election challenge, Judge Weill must decide not only whether to rule for Young or Freeman or order a new election but also whether to throw out the affidavit ballots from the annexed area.
Meanwhile, Freeman said, the city must add the annexed area to one of its four wards and also redistrict the wards to equalize their populations. There is presumably some time to address redistricting, however, since Itta Bena’s next municipal election is not scheduled until 2025.
- Contact Gerard Edic at 662-581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
