A steady stream of voters made their way to the Leflore County and Carroll County courthouses Saturday to cast absentee ballots.
Saturday was the last day to vote absentee.
Absentee ballots are provided to voters who are unable to be in the county on the day of an election due to work or a number of other specified conditions.
In Leflore County, one such voter was Anthony Collins of Schlater.
“I’m a truck driver, so I won’t be here next week,” he said.
Rosetta Harris of Itta Bena said she decided to vote absentee because she will be out of town Tuesday. She said she was most interested in the county races.
Jessie Payne Jr. said his reason for voting absentee is simple: He will be a poll worker on Tuesday. Payne’s daughter, Tiara, who also voted absentee Saturday, said she works in Jackson during the week.
Leflore County Circuit Clerk Elmus Stockstill said Saturday that more than 926 absentee ballots had been requested and 744 had been received by 11 a.m. that day.
“We’ve got a large number of absentees that we are processing, that we are going through right now,” he said.
Carroll County Circuit Clerk Durward Stanton said shortly before his office closed Saturday that he didn’t know how many ballots had come in by the deadline. On Friday, he said 330 such ballots had been received.
In addition to a number of county and state races, the ballot will include Initiative 42, a proposed constitutional amendment that would require the state to provide “an adequate and efficient system of public schools” and would allow people to sue if money falls short. It also includes Initiative 42-A, which would not allow such lawsuits.
Stanton said he expects the lengthy and complex language of Initiative 42 to cause the greatest confusion among voters.
He said he “would encourage voters to educate themselves” before casting their ballots.
Stockstill said changes in Leflore County will allow for voting at both Claudine Brown Elementary School and East Elementary School on Tuesday. Concerns had been raised about how that would be arranged during a school day.
Each school will have a designated area for polling precincts, he said.
•Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
