Even though the turnout for the June 23 Republican primary runoff election is not expected to be large, the process did run into some snags that Circuit Clerk Carolyn Hamilton told the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors on Monday have been worked out.
"The school board didn't want us to use their facilities and we got that remedied,” she said.
Additionally, “Another precinct called and said they were having Bible class that week, so I did manage to convince them to find a place inside of their church to let us have the election and the pastor is allowing us to use his office," Hamilton said.
She said that although the COVID-19 virus situation is a contributing factor, it is not the only factor causing this to be a low turnout election.
"It's a Republican primary runoff for the Second Congressional District. I don't think many people in this county know who those two Republican candidates are," said Hamilton.
Her allotted time before the board members included a request to Sheriff James Haywood to have inmates do a "COVID-19 cleaning" of the polling precincts on the day after the election. "That was the main reason that the school board did not want us to use their facilities," said Hamilton.
District 1 Supervisor Glenn Donald expressed chafe with regard to the school district’s initial objection to use the facilities as polling places. "They've got parents coming in picking up packets, they've got parents coming in picking up lunches, what's the difference with somebody coming in voting? Take some of this $11 million dollars we give you a year and clean it," Donald said.
In addition to the several school facilities, Hamilton said they are also using a combination of churches and municipal buildings to serve as precincts. "So, I felt like because of COVID-19 we just need to put forth every effort to show the people, because we're using their property, that we are concerned about it and we are taking every (measure) possible to not put them at a risk," she said.
Hamilton said she will only be putting one machine at each precinct and will take steps to make sure those machines are properly sanitized and the people are protected. Persons entering the voting places will be given a mask and asked to wear the mask during the voting process. Hand sanitizer will be available before and after the voting is complete and the machines will be wiped down periodically during the day.
Board Attorney Johnny McWilliams commended Hamilton on her efforts, queried her about the November presidential election and suggested to the county leaders that they do whatever was necessary to make people comfortable with this small election in light of the upcoming major election. "I'm suggesting to the board that we do whatever we can to make these folks feel good about this little small election so that they won't give us trouble about the big one that's coming and I think cleaning is a reasonable request," he said.
Donald then expressed his uncertainty with regard to being able to use school facilities for the November election if the governor allows students to convene back in the classrooms for the fall session. He suggested looking now for other facilities to use as voting precincts. Donald also reintroduced the idea of setting up portable buildings at the current precinct addresses or at other locations and using those instead of actually entering the school facilities. McWilliams said since people have been voting in the same places for many years changing them up on short notice is not a good idea in his opinion.
McWilliams suggested that the board members give Hamilton the authority to meet with school district officials and others in order to formulate measures to ensure the success of the November election process to avoid any last-minute location changes.
Noting that the year 2021 is going to be a redistricting year, McWilliams also suggested not making any location changes during this election cycle and holding off until after the census results are in. "You may well want to consider not having 17 precincts because some of them are mighty small and if we are going to start having these sorts of problems, the fewer places you have, the easier it will be to deal with those," he said.
In other business,
The county's election commissioners are due for re-election this year and as of Monday’s filing deadline only three persons had qualified to run for the five positions, Margaret Rushing qualified in District 3 and incumbents Porchia Anthony and Roy Stanford qualified in districts 2 and 4 respectively. The county lawmakers will have to certify them as independent candidates at the next board meeting.
According to Hamilton, "They all have met qualifications with obtaining 50 signatures in their district. District 1 and 5 papers were not submitted, which means the board will appoint two commissioners in January," she said.
Hamilton said the current commissioners are scheduled to hold office until December 31 of this year. Those to be appointed by the Supervisors in January 2021 will serve until December 31, 2021.
A special election will be held in November of 2021 and those elected then would begin serving their term in January of 2022. "If only one person qualifies in each of those districts then the board can dispense with the election and certify the two candidates from District 1 and District 5 as the winners," Hamilton said.
She said after this election, the commissioners will be moving to staggered terms to prevent having an all-new board in the future.
At the request of McWilliams, the county leaders also voted to begin the process of retaining the services of a redistricting consultant.
