Contested races for circuit clerk, circuit judge and two seats on the school board had voter turnout this morning higher than usual for a federal midterm election year, poll managers said.

“We’ve been steady,” Elks Lodge precinct manager Dianne Wilder said, adding about 45 people had shown up by 7:45 a.m. “They were waiting at the door for us when we arrived. We have a good turnout. The people are so sweet about coming in and voting.”

Voting at Immanuel Baptist Church on U.S. 61 South was even brisker, with 28 ballots cast in the first 30 minutes.

“I think it’s going to be a large turnout,” poll manager Debra Grayson said. The precinct is among four in southwestern Warren County where District 4 voters will choose a representative for the Vicksburg Warren School District Board of Trustees.

Interest in who’ll fill the circuit clerk’s office for at least the next year was tops among reasons to come out early. Interim clerk Greg Peltz faces four challengers in a special election today to succeed former clerk Shelly Ashley-Palmertree, who was removed from office May 19 amid scandal.

“There was a lot of confusion about it,” said Walter Goodwin, who voted at the church on the way to work. “I don’t know why it took so long to eliminate that person.”

Foot traffic was a bit slower at American Legion and Auditorium, where 50 and 20 people voted in the first hour, respectively. Ballots at the former feature the District 3 school board race.

“It’s going to be kind of steady,” poll manager K. Younger said. “It’s different from a primary to a general. More people come out for a general than a primary.”

Voter rolls showed 29,789 people registered in Warren County, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Culkin and Vicksburg Junior High School precincts are the two largest, each with more than 1,000 registered.

The turnout in Warren County for the last federal midterm election, in 2010, was 36 percent.

Troy Kimble talked this morning to people holding signs near the Auditorium. Kimble, a Vicksburg police officer, faces former sheriff’s deputy Mario Grady to fill the seat formerly held by the late Randy Naylor.

That race and the contest for circuit clerk give local flavor to a ballot of federal midterm races expected to be held easily by incumbent U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran and U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson.

Challenging Peltz for circuit clerk are former school board member Jan Hyland Daigre, former Vicksburg police officer Robert Donohue, Department of Human Services paralegal A. Sharonda Taylor and Warren County Democratic Executive Committee chairman John Shorter.

As with the constable race, the winner may face voters again next year in the state/county  election cycle.

For circuit judge, incumbent M. James Chaney is opposed by Eddie Woods, the justice court judge for the county’s northern district.

On the school board, District 3 Trustee Jim Stirgus Jr. is opposed by Dr. John Walls, a former assistant superintendent for the school district. In District 4, incumbent Joe Loviza is opposed by Katrina Johnson, a substitute teacher in the district.

In federal races on the ballot in Warren County, Cochran faces former U.S. Rep. Travis Childers and the Reform Party’s Shawn O’Hara. Cochran, 76, emerged from a bruising Republican primary versus state Sen. Chris McDaniel by courting voting blocs who normally don’t vote in GOP primaries, particularly black voters.

Bennie Thompson of Bolton, the only Democrat in Mississippi’s House delegation, faces two challengers. Thompson, now 66, was first elected in 1993 in a district that encompasses the Delta, all of Vicksburg and Warren County, and most of the capital city of Jackson. He faces independent Troy Ray and the Reform Party’s Shelley Shoemake.

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The Associated Press and staff writers Josh Edwards, Cory Gunkel and John Surratt contributed to this report.