Overcrowding at Warren County’s Culkin Precinct at Gibson Memorial United Methodist Church has forced election officials to relocate some voters to the Bovina Precinct.

Warren County Circuit Clerk Jan Daigre said the plan is to move about 1,297 of the precinct’s 3,800 voters to Bovina Baptist Church, which is a larger precinct and can accommodate more people. Both precincts are in District 1.

“It’s (Gibson) just not able to handle that volume of voters,” Daigre said. “We’re not moving districts, we’re not moving district lines; it’s strictly relieving overcrowding at one precinct by moving some of the voters to another precinct.”

She said the voters who will be relocated will be notified of the change in the first of January with new registration cards. She said the Warren County Board of Supervisors has approved the move.

“It was approved by the supervisors in February, but because it was too close to the end of the qualifying period, we couldn’t do it until now,” Warren County Election Commission Chairman Sarah Dionne said.

Dionne said the change affects District 1 voters south of Interstate 20, and a representative from the Secretary of State’s office will be in Vicksburg Friday to help county election officials with the changes.

Dionne said the precinct was part of a large precinct that at one time was at Sherman Avenue School and was initially divided with some voters going to Oakland Baptist and others going to Gibson.