Tuesday is voting day across Mississippi, and election officials in Leflore and Carroll counties say they are hoping for a heavy turnout and a smooth process.
“We have a pretty good system in place here,” said Leflore County Circuit Clerk Elmus Stockstill while discussing the 77 touch-screen voting machines that will be distributed to 18 precincts Monday.
On Tuesday, he’ll get to his office at the courthouse before daylight. “I’ll be here at 5:30 in the morning. I’ll have the technicians here with me,” he said. If a machine has an issue, he said, “we’ll dispatch them out to the election commissioners that cover that area.” Logistics and accuracy tests were conducted on the machines last week.
Edward Course, Leflore County Election Commission chairman, said, “We’ve got everything ready. ... We are getting our voting machines delivered over the weekend, and they should be in place by Tuesday.” At the precincts, he said, “We will check it out to make sure our poll workers can get in. We will instruct our poll managers on last-minute things. Everything’s in shape.”
He noted that two of the precincts will be at schools, East Elementary and Claudine Brown Elementary. These were closed in the past on election day but will be open as usual Tuesday.
“No, it won’t be a problem,” he said, although high numbers of voters might arrive at both locations. A side effect, he said, is that by seeing voters at the polls, “it will be a living experience for the children.”
The Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District has set aside designated areas for voting machines at the schools, said Dr. Mary Brown, superintendent. “Voters will not use the school’s main entrance at East Elementary; they will enter from a side door. Disabled voters will be able to use the main entrance. Adults will not cross paths with students, and school resource officers are on site,” she said.
At Stockstill’s office Thursday morning, people were standing in line to cast absentee ballots, and close to 700 absentee ballots had been collected either at the courthouse or through the mail. Stockstill was expecting the number to increase significantly: “We have had over 1,000, so it’s getting up to that point.”
The deadline statewide to cast an absentee ballot is noon Saturday, although mailed ballots arriving before 5 p.m. Monday will be accepted. The process is to assemble the ballots and deliver them to poll workers at the precincts Tuesday. On the day after the election, commissioners will count affidavit ballots before starting the certification process. The certified vote then is delivered to state officials, probably in about 10 days, Course said.
Course, Stockstill and Carroll County officials Durward Stanton, circuit clerk, and Edward Corder, election commission chairman, speculated that hotly contested races statewide, such as that for governor, as well as those in their counties, will spur voter turnout.
In Leflore County, there are three races with three candidates each — for the state House of Representatives District 32 seat, for chancery clerk and District 5 supervisor. In the nonpartisan race for Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School Board from District 5, there are four candidates.
In Carroll County, three candidates are seeking the position of chancery clerk, and three are running for District 3 supervisor. In District 5, there are three candidates for election commissioner.
In the school board race, the winner must receive 50 percent of the vote plus one, Stockstill said. In the case of a runoff, it will be between the top two vote getters. In the other races, there will be no runoff.
Stanton said Carroll absentee voting was lower than he expected by Thursday afternoon - not quite 200, but he hoped the numbers would increase, especially because of the governor’s race and the county’s contested local races.
“One thing about voters in Carroll County: They usually turn out to vote,” he said.
Corder, who has served as an election commissioner for nearly 30 years, said, “I think we’ll have a pretty good interest in the statewide elections, and we have two or three county elections hanging in balance. So, I think we’ll have a pretty good turnout.” He paused and added, “I might be fooled.”
Carroll County has 7,293 voters listed on the rolls as active because they have voted in two recent and consecutive elections. Leflore County has 21,416.
Stanton and Stockstill are on the ballot, but each is uncontested. Both said this helps them focus on the job at hand.
In Carroll County, returns will be projected onto a wall inside the courthouse in Vaiden. The Conservative newspaper and the Carroll County Development Association will be posting returns during an election night party on the lawn of the Carrollton courthouse. The Commonwealth will post them online at www.gwcommonwealth
.com.
nContact Susan Montgomery at 581-7233 or smontgomery@gwcommonwealth.
com.
1102gettingreadyforelectionElementary. These were closed in the past on election day but will be open as usual Tuesday. “No, it won’t be a problem,” he said, although high numbers of voters might arrive at both locations. A side effect, he said, is that by seeing voters at the polls, “it will be a living experience for the children.”
The Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District has set aside designated areas for voting machines at the schools, said Dr. Mary Brown, superintendent. “Voters will not use the school’s main entrance at East Elementary; they will enter from a side door. Disabled voters will be able to use the main entrance. Adults will not cross paths with students, and school resource officers are on site,” she said.
At Stockstill’s office Thursday morning, people were standing in line to cast absentee ballots, and close to 700 absentee ballots had been collected either at the courthouse or through the mail. Stockstill was expecting the number to increase significantly.
“We have had over 1,000, so it’s getting up to that point,” he explained.
The deadline statewide to cast an absentee ballot is noon Saturday, although mailed ballots arriving before 5 p.m. Monday will be accepted. The process is to assemble the ballots and deliver them to poll workers at the precincts Tuesday. On the day after the election, commissioners will count affidavit ballots before starting the certification process. The certified vote then is delivered to state officials, probably in about 10 days, Course said.
Course, Stockstill and Carroll County officials Durward Stanton, circuit clerk, and Edward Corder, election commission chairman, speculated that hotly contested races statewide, such as that for governor, as well as those in their counties, will spur voter turnout.
In Leflore County, there are three races with three candidates each — for the state House of Representatives District 32 seat, for chancery clerk and District 5 supervisor. In the nonpartisan race for Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School Board from District 5, there are four candidates.
In Carroll County, three candidates are seeking the position of chancery clerk, and three are running for District 3 supervisor. In District 5, there are three candidates for election commissioner.
In the school board race, the winner must receive 50 percent of the vote plus 1, Stockstill said. In the case of a runoff, it will be between the top two vote getters. In the other races, there will be no runoff.
Stanton said Carroll absentee voting was lower than he expected by Thursday afternoon - not quite 200, but he hoped the numbers would increase, especially because of the governor’s race and the county’s contested local races.
“One thing about voters in Carroll County, they usually turnout to vote,” he remarked.
Corder, who has served as an election commissioner for nearly 30 years, said, “I think we’ll have a pretty good interest in the statewide elections, and we have two or three county elections hanging in balance. So, I think we’ll have a pretty good turnout.” He paused and added, “I might fooled.”
Carroll County has 7,293 voters listed on the rolls as active because they have voted in two recent and consecutive elections. Leflore County has 21,416.
Stanton and Stockstill are on the ballot, but each is uncontested.
Stockstill said, “That feels great because I can actually focus on the election rather than campaigning and asking for votes.”
Stanton, said, “It helps to focus my attention on making sure this election goes smoothly.”
In Carroll County, returns will be projected onto a wall inside the courthouse in Vaiden. The Conservative newspaper and the Carroll County Development Association will be posting returns during an election night party on the lawn of the Carrollton courthouse. The Commonwealth will post them online at www.gwcommonwealth.com.
•Contact Susan Montgomery at 581-7233 or smontgomery@gwcommonwealth.com.
