For the second time since May, Greg Peltz and Jan Hyland Daigre are tops among those who vied to be circuit clerk in Warren County.

This time, voters get to decide the outcome.

Daigre, 53, a former school board member, bested Peltz, appointed clerk by the Board of Supervisors, by more than 1,600 votes in Tuesday’s special election to fill the rest of jailed ex-clerk Shelly Ashley-Palmertree’s term. Daigre received 39 percent of the vote to Peltz’s 24 percent.

A runoff between the two will be Nov. 25. State law allows runoffs for the top two vote-getters in all special elections, judicial races and in certain school districts if no majority is reached.

“I’m going to knock on as many doors and talk to as many people as I can,” Daigre said after a night spent with supporters tallying votes. Daigre finished a strong second to Palmertree in 2011 and had applied for the job in May when supervisors declared the office vacant.

Peltz, who was a 4-1 choice of supervisors to fill the office until Tuesday’s nonpartisan special election, said winning a runoff would require another round of doing the job and campaigning.

“I’m just going to do like I’ve been doing,” he said, surrounded by family.

Daigre won 14 of 22 precincts, including her base in the southwestern part of the county where she was District 4 school district trustee from 2002-08. She also won 46 percent to Peltz’s 36 percent in the Culkin precinct, the county’s largest.

Finishing third was A. Sharonda Taylor, with nearly 21 percent of the vote and a plurality of the vote in eight precincts. Seven of the eight were in the central part of the city.

John Shorter’s 10 percent and Robert Donohue’s 5 percent rounded out Tuesday’s returns.

In Mississippi, circuit and chancery clerks are the highest-paying jobs in county government. Base salaries for each are capped at $90,000 by the Legislature. Circuit Clerk maintains all court records, filings, paper and accounts for all court costs, fees, fines, and assessments for Circuit Court, County Court and Youth Court. In addition, the office keeps marriage licenses, jury lists, civil and criminal trial dockets and licenses for doctors and other professionals. During elections, the office serves as the registrar of voters and assists with elections. Candidates for county-level offices turn qualifying papers in to the office.

Unofficial returns late Tuesday, including 405 absentee ballots counted by electronic scanner, show 11,173 people voted in Warren County. That translates to a 37.6 percent turnout countywide for Tuesday’s races, headlined locally by federal midterm elections for U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives and two school board races. Turnout for the 2010 midterms, which also featured contests for school board, was 36 percent.

Another special election on Tuesday’s ballot, for constable for the central district, was decided early. Troy Kimble, appointed by the county in January to succeed the late Randy Naylor, defeated Mario Grady with nearly 61 percent of the vote.

The 9th Circuit Court District’s judgeship for Subdistrict 2 remained the same, as incumbent M. James Chaney won more than 78 percent of the vote against challenger Eddie Woods, who captured 22 percent. Woods remains justice court judge for Warren County’s northern district.

“Thanks to my family and friends,” Chaney said after vote tallying had all but ended. “I’m overwhelmed by their support.”

Chaney was appointed to the bench in 2009 after former judge Frank Vollor retired. He was re-elected without opposition in 2010.

The circuit’s senior judge, Isadore Patrick, was re-elected without opposition, as was 9th Chancery District Judge Vicki Roach Barnes and County Judge Johnny Price.