As incumbents and challengers alike scrambled last week to see who had qualified to run for local and statewide offices, computer glitches caused some candidates to drop off the radar until several hours after the rest of the field had qualified.

One challenger ensured the race to succeed Rep. Chester Masterson, R-Vicksburg, will be a three-person ballot on Nov. 6.

Jennifer Thomas, 41, operations officer in the Warren County Emergency Management Agency, qualified late Thursday as a Democrat.

&#8220It’s time for Christians to take part in the political process,” Thomas said late Monday.

She met the 5 p.m. deadline on Thursday, but her name wasn’t on &#8220final” lists the party presented.

Before her appointment to the office that acts as a deputy director to the hazard mitigation agency’s director, Thomas spent 22 years in the U.S. Air Force. She is the daughter of logger Charles Thomas, who has previously run for District 1 supervisor.

House District 54 starts in south Warren County and loops up the east side of the county to Sharkey and Issaquena county precincts.

Two Republicans, businessman Alex Monsour and attorney Ryan Sadler, will meet Aug. 7 in a primary with the winner advancing to the general election.

There, Monsour or Sadler will face Thomas and attorney Tom Setser, initially a Republican who changed to independent.

Masterson, who will have served two House terms, is seeking the state Senate slot vacated by Sen. Mike Chaney, himself an 11th-hour addition to a field of seven for state Insurance Commissioner.

Thomas’ name, along with that of late-filing House District 55 candidate Gary Baldwin, did not appear on the Web site of the state Democratic Party until late Friday afternoon.

&#8220We had some coding problems inputting some data into our system,” said Terry Cassreino, state party spokesman.

Baldwin is challenging five-term incumbent Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, in the Democratic primary Aug. 7. Local minister Rick McAlister is running as a Republican in the same race.

Fifty-two candidates qualified for local and statewide office in Warren County.