Voters in Warren County might notice changes come November to the machines on which they cast ballots in federal and local races.
Bulky equipment that had housed printers that kept track of each vote in sight of the voter won’t be used anymore due to breakages and replacement costs, election officials said Friday. Instead, printers inside each of the county’s 146 touch-screen voting machines handled by poll managers when polls close will tally each vote.
Voters won’t have to do anything different from the usual process, which consists of inserting a electronic ballot card into the machine, following the prompts to make their choices, then checking it for any mistakes.
“You’ll still be able to check your ballot before casting it by pressing the “summary” button on the screen,” said Jim Moore, one of two contractors who work with the Warren County Election Commission, which approved the changes this past week. “The external printers were cumbersome and break easily.”
Technical adjustments will be made in about three weeks to software governing the machines that will allow each to recognize the removal of the external printers, Moore said.
Replacing printers that had been attached to the right-front end of the machines since first put into use in 2006 would have cost roughly $25,000, Moore said. Their removal will eliminate paper jams that had caused some machines to stop working momentarily during past elections. Some of the oblong plastic shelters had pieces broken in transit to polling places. Moore said at least 50 counties in the state have already stopped using the external equipment.
Poll managers at Warren County’s 22 precincts should also find it easier to remove the entire face of the machine without the external printers to allow curbside voting, said Donald Oakes, the former three-time interim schools superintendent who has contracted with the commission for more than a decade. It should also speed up the “end of the night” procedure, Oakes said, by eliminating a step as all precincts’ votes are loaded onto master cards that are processed at the courthouse.
Moore said 114 machines would be used for the Nov. 4 general election, which in Warren County will feature races for U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, chancery and circuit judgeships, two seats on the Vicksburg Warren School District Board of Trustees and special nonpartisan elections locally for circuit clerk and central district constable.
For Senate, U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran is listed as the Republican nominee for the seat he’s held since 1978 on ballots issued by the state. Former congressman Travis Childers is the Democratic nominee and Shawn O’Hara, a frequent candidate for various offices, is the Reform Party candidate. State Sen. Chris McDaniel, who lost the GOP primary runoff to Cochran, is challenging the primary results and is set to plead his case Oct. 2 to the Mississippi Supreme Court.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson faces no general election challenger, having defeated Clinton laborer Damien Faircontenue in the primary.
Contested races for the Districts 3 and 4 spots on the school board feature two-man races in each. In District 3, former assistant school superintendent Dr. John Walls challenges Jim Stirgus Jr. In District 4, incumbent Joe Loviza faces substitute teacher Katrina Johnson in District 4. Both trustees seek a second six-year term on the five-member board.
For circuit clerk, five qualified this summer. They include interim clerk Greg Peltz, insurance agent and former school board member Jan Hyland Daigre, former Vicksburg police officer Robert Donahue and Department of Human Services employee A. Sharonda Taylor. The winner fills the unexpired term of former clerk Shelly Ashley-Palmertree. County supervisors appointed Peltz May 19.
For constable, Mario Grady, a former Warren County deputy, challenges Troy Kimble, also appointed to the office by the county.
Winners in the clerk and constable races may run again when the office comes up in the regular state/county election cycle.
One of three local judgeships is contested. Circuit Judge Place 2 Judge M. James Chaney is opposed by Northern District Justice Court Judge Eddie Woods. The Ninth Circuit’s senior judge, Isadore Patrick, is unopposed, as are Ninth Chancery District Judge Vicki Roach Barnes and County Judge Johnny Price.