No changes expected in counting of absentees

Published 11:44 am Thursday, August 4, 2011

Absentee and affidavit ballots cast in Tuesday’s primary election in Warren County were to be tallied today by party officials, as the campaign kicks into high gear for candidates in the Aug. 23 runoff and the Nov. 8 general election.

None of the absentees was expected to change results in primaries held for five local county-level offices. Democratic and Republican executive committee chairmen didn’t have totals this morning for what was hand-counted Wednesday, but expect to add today’s result to official tabulations for the Secretary of State’s Office.

Races for the Republican nod for chancery clerk and county supervisor for District 1 will be on the Aug. 23 runoff ballot.

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Donna Farris Hardy, a retired health care administrator, faces City Accountant Doug Whittington for chancery clerk. Hardy finished ahead of Whittington by 57 votes out of 5,066 votes cast Tuesday, but fell short of the majority needed to avoid a second round of voting. Dawn Cain Barnes finished third. The winner faces City Clerk Walter Osborne, a Democrat unopposed Tuesday, and independents Alecia Ashley and Gene Thompson. Incumbent Dot McGee is retiring this year.

District 1 Supervisor David McDonald came out ahead of John Arnold, a real estate broker, by 92 votes out of 1,902 ballots cast in person Tuesday. Joe Channell finished third. The runoff is a repeat of the 2007 primary, when McDonald won by 17 votes after a manual recount. The winner faces independents Reed Birdsong, the county permitting officer, and Jerry Briggs, a volunteer firefighter, in November.

Tuesday’s results were read aloud by local party chairmen in the circuit courtroom, as is custom. However, issues from paper vote tapes swelling in Tuesday’s searing heat at some precincts to technical problems with machines at four precincts contributed to a five-hour wait between the polls closing and the last of Warren’s 22 precincts being read.

“One machine failed at Beechwood,” Warren County Democratic Executive Committee chairman John Shorter said. “The parties agreed to call the company and go into the archives of the machine to get the votes.”

Totals off ballot cards distributed at the polls are loaded, or “accumulated,” into a master card which is loaded into a main processing computer at the courthouse. That didn’t happen so smoothly at Beechwood, Moose Lodge, Vicksburg Junior High School and Jett precincts because “accumulations” weren’t done until precinct materials arrived at the courthouse, Shorter said.

“I prefer everybody do it the same,” he said, adding “a lot of new poll workers” helped manage precincts Tuesday.

Eric Biedenharn, chairman of the Warren County Republican Executive Committee, couldn’t pinpoint delays in vote counting.

“They were slow for some reason,” he said.

Angela Brown won the Democratic primary for tax assessor over Gary Lick with 89.5 percent of 3,468 ballots cast at the polls, setting the stage for a four-person race in November to succeed the retiring Richard Holland. Brown faces Republican Mike Caruthers and independents Ben Luckett and Doug Tanner in November. Brown and Luckett are deputy tax assessors; Caruthers, who had no primary opponent, and Tanner are businessmen.

Candidates have addressed current issues with property taxes in varying ways during the election season.

When about half the countywide vote showed Brown comfortably ahead, Brown said her visits with voters show people want fair rates on their homes and businesses and she hasn’t heard much complaint about individual property tax bills.

“They just want it done fairly,” Brown said.

Luckett has pledged reassessments in areas affected by this spring’s historic flood on the Mississippi River if elected, including properties from Eagle Lake south to historically flood-prone neighborhoods in north Vicksburg such as Kings and Ford.

“We will do so in every flooded area,” Luckett told a meeting of Eagle Lake residents July 22. Real and personal property rolls were worth $3.4 billion this year but showed a 1 percent dip over last year. Eight protests filed with county supervisors Monday detailed issues with current values and with recent-past tax bills. Supervisors have the protests under review.

Republican David Sharp, a schoolteacher, won the GOP nod for circuit clerk Tuesday with nearly 61 percent of 4,689 votes cast. Sharp faces incumbent Shelly Ashley-Palmertree, the Democratic victor on Tuesday, and independents Jan Hyland Daigre, a former school board member, and Robert Terry, a real estate broker.

Races for sheriff and tax collector, which had no party primary contests in Tuesday elections, will move to the Nov. 8 ballots.

Sheriff Martin Pace, an independent, is seeking a fourth full term in the fall against retired deputy Bubba Comans, a Democrat. Pace was first elected in 1996.

Tax Collector Antonia Flaggs Jones, a Democrat, is opposed by Republican Patty Mekus, an employee of Vicksburg Catholic School. Jones was elected in 2009 after 15-year incumbent Pat Simrall retired.

In the other supervisor elections:

• District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon, who seeks a fifth term, will face Vicksburg Warren School District Trustee James Stirgus Jr., an independent.

• District 4 Supervisor Bill Lauderdale, an independent, who seeks a sixth term, will face Democrat Casey Fisher, a minister and retired postal employee, who was unopposed in the primary. Lauderdale won in 2007 by 43 votes after a hand count.

• District 5 Supervisor Richard George, an independent, seeks a fifth term and faces J.W. Carroll, a retired electrical contractor; Joe Wooley, who is seeking the District 5 seat for the fourth time; and local farmer Ellis Tillotson, 55. All three challengers are independents.