[09/29/02]Friday is the deadline for potential voters to register for the Nov. 5 general election.

The Warren County races on the ballots will be two spots on the Vicksburg Warren School District’s Board of Trustees, Warren County and Youth Court judge and Central District constable.

The deadline is 5 p.m. in the Warren County Circuit Clerk’s Office.

The same office will be open for absentee voting from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, and again on the two Saturdays before the election, Oct. 26 and Nov. 2.

Two candidates have filed to run for each school board seat. In District 3, the candidates are Betty J. Tolliver, 52, and incumbent Pearline Williams, 71. That district encompasses a central part of the City of Vicksburg.

From District 4, in the southwestern part of the county, the candidates are incumbent John W. Carlisle, 54, and Jan Hyland Daigre, 40.

The school board has five members, one from each of the county’s five supervisor voting districts, and they serve staggered six-year terms.

In a special election for Central District constable, the candidates are David Garland Atwood II, 19; Albert Butler, 35; Roosevelt Holly, age unavailable; James E. Jefferson, 42; Roy Tillman, 45; and Rudolph Walker, 49.

The constable’s opening came with the resignation of J.L. Mitchell, who pleaded guilty July 26 to a felony extortion charge after serving in the post since 1986. Walker, a veteran Vicksburg police officer, was appointed by the Board of Supervisors Aug. 12 to be interim constable.

The main role of constables is to serve summonses, lawsuits and other court documents. They are independent law enforcement officers and are paid a flat per-service fee, usually as a second income or part-time job.

Warren County’s constables are elected for four-year terms from central, north and south districts.

Once elected, constables must complete the state law enforcement training academy.

Five Vicksburg attorneys are in the race for judge of Warren County Court and Youth Court. They are Robert C. Arledge, 45; William Bost Jr., 57; incumbent Gerald Hosemann, 50; Warren County Prosecutor Johnny Price, 55; and Clarence A. Whitaker, 59.

Hosemann was returned to full duty July 26 by the state Supreme Court after facing a felony indictment in Hinds County Circuit Court for a month and pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace. The indictment was dropped on May 23.

Hosemann had faced charges of assault.

For a candidate to be elected county judge or constable in the general election, he would have to receive at least one vote more than half of those cast.

If no such winner emerges, the top two vote-getters face off Nov. 19.

The four other judges serving Warren County who are up for re-election this year, District 9 Circuit Judges Frank Vollor and Isadore Patrick, District 9 Subdistrict 3 Chancery Court Judge Vicki Roach Barnes and state Court of Appeals District 2 Position 1 Judge Tyree Irving, are all running unopposed in the general election.

Two races for Congress will also be on Warren County voters’ ballots. In the race for the 2nd Congressional District, incumbent Bennie Thompson, D-Bolton, Greenville Republican Clinton B. LeSueur and Reform Party candidate Lee Dilworth of Jackson are the candidates.

In the Senate race, candidates are incumbent Thad Cochran, R-Jackson, and Reform Party candidate Shawn O’Hara of Hattiesburg.