Poll managers at Warren County’s 22 precincts hoped turnout wouldn’t be a turkey for today’s runoff for circuit clerk.

“Thanksgiving is hurting us,” Elks Lodge precinct manager Dianne Wilder said as 14 ballots were cast in the first half-hour after polls opened at 7 a.m. The early-morning foot traffic was down from the 45 who voted on their way to work for the Nov. 4 general election.

“We’ve had people stop by to vote on their way out of town, so our faithful are still with us,” Wilder said. “We look for the turnout to improve as the day goes on.”

Interest was about as light at Immanuel Baptist Church, home to the Jett precinct along U.S. 61 South. Eleven voters had cast ballots there by 7:30. The non-traditional mix of holidays and voting was front and center for poll worker Buddy Lofton.

“That might have something to do with it,” Lofton said of the timing of the runoff, which pits interim circuit clerk Greg Peltz against Jan Hyland Daigre. The winner will serve at least the next year and may run for the office again in the 2015 state/county election cycle. Daigre won 39 percent of the vote in a five-person race Nov. 4 to Peltz’s 24 percent.

Elks and Jett are in Jan Hyland Daigre’s home base, where she served on the school board from 2002-08. Voters trickled in one or two at a time at Culkin precinct at Sherman Avenue Elementary, the county’s largest. It’s Peltz’s base and was where he was strongest in terms of raw vote, though Daigre bested him there by 10 points in the general election.

At American Legion Post 3 on Monroe Street, where 50 people voted in the first half-hour three weeks ago, a mere 14 had cast ballots by that time frame this morning.

Jett poll manager Debra Grayson alluded to the scandal-plagued office and an ongoing legal fight over questioned payments when workers wondered how busy they’d be today.

“There’s a million reasons to vote,” Grayson said.

Today’s winner will succeed jailed ex-clerk Shelly Ashley-Palmertree, who was removed from office May 19 by the Warren County Board of Supervisors. The office was declared vacant when a state auditor’s investigation showed she had declared residence in Madison County in 2013. On Sept. 29, she was sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement and is the subject of a civil case in Hinds County Chancery Court involving more than $1.04 million in payments county officials say is owed back to the county.

In Mississippi, circuit and chancery clerks are the highest-paying jobs in county government. Base salaries for each are capped at $90,000 by the Legislature. Circuit Clerk maintains all court records, filings, paper and accounts for all court costs, fees, fines, and assessments for Circuit Court, County Court and Youth Court. In addition, the office keeps marriage licenses, jury lists, civil and criminal trial dockets and licenses for doctors and other professionals. During elections, the office serves as the registrar of voters and assists with elections. Candidates for county-level offices turn qualifying papers in to the office.

Statewide, the runoff ballot is equally light, save for a contest for 3rd Circuit Court Judge in northeast Mississippi between Holly Springs attorney Shirley Byers and assistant district attorney J. Kelly Luther, of Tippah County.

Staff writers Josh Edwards, John Surratt and The Associated Press contributed to this report.