Web site to offer updated local election results

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, November 7, 2000

For the first time, Warren County residents will be able to log on to their home computers for up-to-the-minute election results Tuesday night.

A Web page created by Gary Haygood, a criminal investigator for the District Attorney’s Office, will allow residents with Internet access to check the results as they come in on election night.

“I thought it would be great if there was another option for people,” Haygood said.

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The site was the brainchild of Haygood and City Clerk Walter Osborne Jr. The two put the page together to allow anyone with a computer to watch the votes being tallied at the Warren County Courthouse.

The site will feature pages for each race on the local ballot from the presidential to election commissioners and an overview page that will show results in each race by precincts.

The pages for individual races will automatically update every 10 seconds, Haygood said, but will indicate local votes only.

Osborne, who has been the election tally administrator in Warren County for 10 years, said he feels the site will bring the community closer to the election.

“This may even give younger people an interest in the election and how the process works,” he said.

During the last presidential election in 1996, a record turnout was recorded with 18,829 out of 26,000 registered voters. This year, 31,370 are eligible to cast ballots in Warren County.

District Attorney Gil Martin said he thinks the Web site will be a benefit for people who don’t want to go to the courthouse to find out results.

“Now they can sit at home and get the results,” he said.

Warren County polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. for voting in the presidential, congressional and local races.

Locally, the names of Ronald C. Regan, Allen Maxwell, Mark Morgan, Wanda Shay Clark Odom and John A. Thomason III will appear on the special election ballot for county coroner.

The winner of that race will serve the remaining three years on the term of L.W. Callaway III, who was appointed director of the county’s Emergency Management Agency in August.

In election commission races, District 1 commissioner Johnny Brewer and District 2 commissioner Retha Summers are unopposed.

In the District 3 race, incumbent LaShondra Williams, a Democrat, faces a challenge by Republican Nancy Clingan. Independent candidate Bobbie Williamson will seek to upset two-term incumbent James E. “Mac” McMullin, a Republican, in the District 4 race. Republican Gordon “Motor” Carr is being challenged by fellow Republican Karoline Finch in District 5.

Zelmarine Murphy is unopposed in her bid for re-election to the School Board District 2 spot.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, a Republican from Pascagoula, is looking for a third six-year term and will face Democrat Troy Brown Sr., Libertarian Lewis Napper, Reform Party candidate Shawn O’Hara, a frequent candidate for the Senate, and independent Jim Giles of Jackson.

In the District 2 U.S. House race, Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, will face Republican nominee Hardy Caraway, a dock worker from Quitman; Libertarian William Chipman, an American History teacher for 19 years from Greenville; and Reform Party candidate Lee Dilworth.

One-term incumbent Jim Smith is vying for another six years on the Mississippi Supreme Court in the District 1, Position 3 spot. He will face Warren County Circuit Court Judge Frank Vollor.

On the Mississippi Court of Appeals, incumbent Leslie King will be unopposed in his bid for his second six-year term in District 2, Position 2.