Preparation for this year’s municipal election continued this week with completion of the five-member Vicksburg Election Commission and other plans firming.

Candidates

* For mayor, John Shorter, Paul Winfield, Tommy Wright and former Alderman Gertrude Young have filed to seek the Democratic nomination in May 2 voting.

* Two-term mayor Laurence Leyens has said he will seek re-election as an independent, meaning he will be on the June 2 general election ballot with the Democratic nominee and any other party nominee or independents.

* No one has filed for alderman in the North Ward or South Ward, although the incumbents said they plan to seek new terms.

* Candidates have until 5 p.m. Friday, March 6, to file qualifying papers.

Appointments went to James E. Harper Sr. and Dell Rogers. Other slots are held by Clyde Redmond, Linda Sweezer and Jim Donley.

Rounding out the commission, charged with preparing poll books and certifying the results of elections, came at greater strain this year compared to past years, officials said.

“The first thing out of people’s mouths was, ‘no’,” City Clerk Walter Osborne said at the start of a special meeting Thursday to complete the panel.

North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield, a Warren County supervisor for a decade before winning his current post, said politics itself plays a role. 

“I never used to have a problem finding people to do it,” Mayfield said. “Now, it’s just ‘no.’

County election commission seats are elective and supervisors appointed a commissioner from District 3 after no one ran for the job in 2008 elections. The county also provides voter registration services for the city, with names and addresses of city residents forwarded to the city commissioners for enrollment on the separate books.

The jobs pay only a per-diem allowance for a maximum number of days determined by the number of elections.

In recent years, elections have become more controversial, with the 2000 presidential election winding up before the U.S. Supreme Court and the mayoral contest in which former Mayor Joe Loviza defeated one-term incumbent Robert Walker 16 years ago also followed by a lawsuit.

This year’s election cycle will be the first mayor’s race to take place using touch-screen voting machines, though city voters have had county, state and federal elections in consecutive years since Warren County opted to use the electronic machines.

Adapting the state elections database to reflect the city electorate began late last year, as circuit clerk’s officials have assisted the city clerk’s office.

David Rankin, Warren County’s information technology director, may be hired as an independent contractor for the circuit clerk’s office, pending approval from PERS, officials said. Rankin had planned to retire effective Feb. 28.

Rankin told supervisors the entire voter database has been updated to reflect those eligible to vote in municipal races, a process he said resulted in five voters from the city becoming eligible to vote in Warren County District 1, nearly all of which is outside city limits.

“City limits in this county are very, very complicated,” Rankin said.

Those limits were redefined slightly by a chancery court case last summer where a 39-acre portion of city property reverted to the county to accommodate expansion of Littlewood subdivision, off Lee Road. Within the past month, the U.S. Department of Justice had requested copies of an updated city charter showing the new boundaries approved by the city board Tuesday, City Attorney Nancy Thomas said.

Originally, city officials had not expected a DOJ pre-clearance because the acreage is mostly brush, Thomas said. Potential changes in municipal lines in all or part of nine states, including Mississippi, must be submitted to the Cabinet department for compliance with Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com.