After winning a special election in August, Circuit Clerk Jan Hyland Daigre has been busy cleaning up an inherited mess from the Shelly Ashley-Palmertree’s administration.

Daigre met with Vicksburg Kiwanis Tuesday to talk about services offered by the circuit clerk’s office and changes that have been made in the last seven months.

“Most of y’all, unless you’ve been under a rock, know that we had a few problems in the Circuit Clerk’s office,” she said. “We’re trying to change that. I want you to know we’re there every day cleaning up and checking up.”

Daigre said her office is currently preparing for two big upcoming elections: the primary election on Aug. 4 and the general election on Nov. 3.

“You have 30 days to register before an election in order to vote,” she said. “Because of that 30 day deadline, the circuit clerk’s office will be open July 4 from 8 a.m. to noon. If you have put it off, you’ll be able to get in there and get registered.”

Applications are also available online at the Secretary of State’s website and at the Warren County website. The applications need to be printed, filled out and mailed to the Circuit Clerk’s office on the second floor of the courthouse.

Absentee voting will be available as early as next week, Daigre said, adding that those interested should contact the Circuit Clerk’s office.

“Besides doing elections — that’s just one little part — we are your county’s registrar,” she said. “If you move and you need to change your mailing address, which might change your precinct, you need to come to the circuit clerk’s office, so we can tell you where your new precinct is.”

Daigre said her office also always has a clerk in circuit court.

“There’s always a clerk, whether it’s myself or a deputy clerk that attends court, and that can be several times a week,” she said.

The Circuit Clerk’s office also randomly pulls jury summonses. Daigre iterated and reiterated that the summonses are random and she has no control over who is chosen.

“If you’re 65 and older I can excuse you in my office,” she said. “Otherwise, out of town or anything else goes to the judges’ court administrator.”

Daigre also highlighted some of the accomplishments she’s had since being elected, including new computers and an upgraded computer system.

“If any cash comes into that office now, it’s received, whether it’s for a $1 copy or a $0.50 copy or a $5,000 restitution,” she said. “That person paying gets a copy and it’s recorded. Things have happened in the past, and we’ve put some parameters up because that can’t happen again.”

Daigre thanked the Warren County Board of Supervisors for fronting the money to get the new computers and systems for the office.

“We take a tremendous amount of money into the office on restitutions,” she said. “Every month I write checks to the victims of whatever the crime was, and then I settle up with the DA’s office.”

Daigre said the relationship between the Circuit Clerk’s office and the DA’s office is very good, though it hasn’t always been.

Another change Daigre has made has been to fix the electronic filing system for all of the criminal court files.

“Because of the reluctance in years past, that kind of information was put in incorrectly,” she said. “The deputy clerks weren’t trained properly.”

Since Daigre took office, she and her staff have been going back over the past five years and re-entering the data correctly.

“Chief Justice Waller sent a hand-written note to me that I am so proud of saying he is so glad to see Warren County complying to the standards and requirements of the Mississippi Electronic Courts system,” she said. “That’s a huge plus in my world.”

Daigre said her office works very close with the election commission.

“The election commission is actually the one who purges voters,” she said.

The process is long, and her office is working with the election commission to clean up some of the extra hurdles, Daigre said.

Daigre said her office currently operates on three different computer systems, something she would like to streamline the process to make it more efficient.

“We’re working on efficiency,” she said.

Daigre said she promised when she ran for office she would deliver a clean audit, a promise she kept.

“I did that on April 15,” she said. “I turned my audit in and didn’t have any problems.”

There are still changes to be made and there’s a lot of learning going on in the office still, Daigre said.

“All the changes have been very positive and what needed to happen,” she said. “If you have a problem in that office at that counter I am always there.”