No election will be held in Utica today because of a miscommunication about candidates’ requirements for qualifying, the chairman of the town’s election commission said.

Only one person, Mary Ann Keith of Ward 2, filed qualifying papers, so an election will be dispensed with and she will win that post, commission chairman Willie E. Hamilton said.

None of the town’s incumbent elected officials, Mayor Charles Stokes, and aldermen Earl Mathes of Ward 1, Larry Boyd of Ward 2, Lynnette Watts of Ward 3, Kenneth Broome of Ward 4 and at-large alderman JoAnn Caston, filed qualifying papers, Hamilton said. The deadline to file qualifying papers was March 4 and candidates were required to submit petitions with signatures by that date. None did, so the election will be delayed for all posts except Keith’s. Ward 2 includes parts of Main Street, Hudson Drive and Utica Bypass, Hamilton said.

At the town board’s first meeting after July 4, when new terms would have started, it must declare the remaining five elective posts vacant, said Phil Carter, a special assistant attorney general in the opinions division of the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office. The board must also order the town’s three-member election commission to conduct a special election to fill the vacancies between 30 and 45 days later, Carter said. The other members of the election commission are Barbara Stokes and Patricia Y. Curtis, Hamilton said.

Meanwhile the town’s other five elected officials may continue to serve in their posts until the special election, Carter said. Anyone qualified to run for office, including the incumbents, is eligible to file for candidacy in the special election.

The town clerk’s office maintains its voter rolls and checks the validity of signatures on candidates’ petitions to qualify, Carter said. Candidates are officially qualified by the election commission, Carter added.

Hamilton said U.S. Justice Department approval would be needed for the special election.