Warren voters go to polls Tuesday
Published 12:14 am Sunday, March 11, 2012
Warren County heads to the polls Tuesday along with other voters across Mississippi, Alabama and Hawaii to choose party nominees in federal primary elections.
Eight candidates in the race for the Republican presidential nomination appear on the state’s ballot. The field includes former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania governor Rick Santorum, who lead the delegate count in primaries and caucuses held thus far. Also on the ballot are U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and three who have dropped out of the race since qualifying began, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, Gov. Rick Perry, of Texas and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman. Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson said in December he’d run for president as a Libertarian, but remains on the GOP ballot in Mississippi.
President Barack Obama appears unchallenged on the Democratic ballot for president.
The general election is Nov. 6. Warren County enters the primary with 31,233 voters on the roll, up by 335 since last November’s general election for statewide and county offices. About 30 people voted absentee Saturday for Tuesday’s primary, Deputy Clerk Chastity Lee said but a complete tally was not available.
“We probably won’t have the numbers until Monday,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson stands for another nomination by the party against former Greenville mayor Heather McTeer. Thompson was first elected in 1993. Republican Bill Marcy, who lost to Thompson in 2010, is the lone GOP candidate on the party’s ballot. Independents Cobby Williams and Lajena Williams will face party nominees in the Nov. 6 general election.
In the Senate, Roger Wicker tries for a second term against E. Allen Hathcock, a retired Army veteran of Starkville and Robert Maloney in the Republican primary. On the Democratic side, Albert N. Gore Jr., the Oktibbeha County Democratic chairman and retired Army veteran, Roger Weiner, a Coahoma County supervisor and Will Oatis, a businessman and Iraq war veteran, from Silver Creek, vie for the party’s nod for the seat Wicker won in a special election in 2008 after former Sen. Trent Lott retired. Independent Thomas Cramer and Shawn O’Hara appear on the general election ballot.
Local and district offices on the ballot in Warren County in November include the District 2 seat on the Vicksburg Warren School District Board of Trustees, all five county election commissioners and positions on the Mississippi Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals.
Qualifying ends May 11 for the judicial races, June 4 for election commissioner and Sept. 7 for school board.
No one has qualified for the slot on the supreme court, which is District 1, Position 3. The incumbent is Justice James W. Kitchens. Supreme court justices serve eight-year terms, as do state appellate court judges.
Court of Appeals Judge Ermea J. Russell has qualified for a full term from the appellate court’s District 2, Position 2 slot, as has Vicksburg attorney Ceola James. Russell was appointed to the bench in May by former Gov. Haley Barbour when former Chief Judge Leslie D. King as appointed to the state supreme court.