Deveda Dillon has been preparing for Election Day for a while.
“We’ve been working on it for months,” she said.
Dillon is a longtime member of the Leflore County Election Commission, whose five members each represent one of the county’s supervisor districts. “There are five of us, and we work together as a board so no one person has to do all the work,” she said.
Dillon is the commissioner of District 1, which includes North Greenwood and Minter City.
She has served on the commission for 18 years. She is seeking another term and is running unopposed in Tuesday’s election, as are Emma Baker of District 2 and Preston Ratliff of District 3.
Dillon enjoys being an election commissioner, interacting with people and making sure that “the election is done according to the Mississippi state election code.”
Throughout the year, the election commissioners work on the election system, purging the names of voters who have died, moved away or requested to be removed from the rolls, and marking those who have not voted in two federal elections as inactive.
As it gets closer to an election, that’s when the commissioners’ duties really pick up.
“There’s a lot of work that we have to do,” said Dillon. “We have to pack all of the poll boxes with the supplies and get them out to the precincts,” which was the job Dillon was finishing up at the Leflore County Courthouse Monday.
This year, however, has been busier than usual.
“The courthouse, especially,” she said, “because they’ve had so many absentee voters. It’s been a big turnout. I think we’ve had twice as many absentee voters as we’ve ever had before.” And Tuesday, “we are expecting a pretty big turnout,” she added.
Dillon grew up in Greenwood and attended Greenwood public schools. She completed her high school education in Oxford, graduating from Oxford High School. Then she attended Delta State University.
After college, Dillon moved out of state.
“I left the Delta and moved to North Carolina,” she said. “We moved to North Carolina for my husband’s job, and we moved back here after that.”
Dillon and her husband, Richard, have been married for 45 years. They have two daughters and are now grandparents. They moved back to Greenwood from North Carolina 35 years ago.
Dillon also is a customer service representative and an agent for SouthGroup Insurance, where she has worked for more than 30 years.
Dillon said she had always liked voting and participating in the democratic process but never considered becoming an election commissioner until former District 1 Supervisor Phil Wolfe approached her.
“He asked me if I would do it because the commissioner of District 1 was resigning due to health reasons,” she said. “So I was appointed the first time.”
Dillon’s predecessor helped her learn the ropes.
After 18 years, she said, “It’s gotten easier, but it’s still a lot of work, and the laws change.
“For this election we’re into right now, the laws have changed because of COVID, so we’re having to do extra stuff that we’ve never had to do before,” including making sure all polling places have personal protective equipment for the poll workers, hand sanitizer and making sure all voters are 6 feet apart.
• Contact Ruthie Robison at 581-7235 or rrobison@gwcommonwealth.com.
