Voting in advance of the May 3 municipal party primary elections is set to begin next week.

City Clerk Walter Osborne said 2,000 absentee ballots have been ordered in anticipation of voters getting a jump start on the election. Registered voters outside the county on the primary election day can cast an absentee ballot until April 30.

Absentee ballots may be requested at City Hall beginning Monday. After being turned in, they will be sealed and not counted until the close of polling at 7 p.m. on primary election day.

The deadline to register to vote in the primary election is April 2. Today, there are about 18,098 names on city poll books.

Vicksburg voters will be picking Democratic nominees in three municipal races. Nominees will advance to the June 7 general election to face independent and Republican candidates for mayor and two aldermen’s seats.

Because the only Republican candidates seeking local offices are not being challenged for their party’s nomination there will no Republican primary voting.

In the race for the mayor’s office, voters across the city will pick among four candidates vying for the Democratic nomination. If none of the candidates gets more than half of the votes, a runoff between the top two vote-getters will be May 17.

Seeking the nomination in that race are former Warren County District 2 Supervisor John Ferguson, 63; Eric Rawlings, 42, who ran unsuccessfully for the nomination four years ago; Warren County District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon, 44; and first-time office seeker John Shorter, 38, a contractor with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The winner will face Republican Shirley Newman Smollen, 69, and independent candidates Mayor Laurence Leyens, 40, and former Mayor Joe Loviza, 65.

In the North Ward primary, incumbent Gertrude Young, 49, is being challenged for the Democratic nomination by Warren County District 2 Supervisor Michael Mayfield, 47, and Rodney Dillamar, 45, a convenience store owner.

Independent candidates in that race are city employee Vickie Bailey, 36, and construction worker Tommie Rawlings, 41. The only Republican in that race is Carl Yelverton, 58, a security guard at a local casino.

Only two candidates are seeking the nomination in the South Ward, eliminating the chance of a runoff. Seeking nod there are former Vicksburg police officer DaVon Grey, 46, and local hair dresser Pam Johnson, 39.

The winner there will challenge incumbent Sid Beauman, 57, a Republican seeking his second term. There are no independent candidates in that race.

General election winners take office to start four-year terms on July 1.