Crossover voting not allowed in runoff
By Amanda Compton-Ortiz/amanda@dctribune.com
Thursday, March 20, 2008 4:04 PM CDT
Results from the March 11 party primary elections are expected to be certified by the week’s end.
According to DeSoto County Election Commissioner Danny Klein, local Republican and Democratic Party executive committees were expected to submit voter totals to the state Republican and Democratic Party committees on Tuesday and Wednesday for certification.
Once the state party executive committees, along with the Secretary of State, sign off on the totals, they will become official, Klein said.
County election commissioners and party executive committee members completed their work on the election and certification process late Monday night.
Klein said the returns show that only about one third, or just over 22,300, of DeSoto County’s 70,402 registered voters cast their ballots in the Tuesday primary. A total of 10,086 Democratic ballots and 12,228 Republican ballots were cast.
With all 38 of DeSoto’s precincts reporting, uncertified returns for Republican and Democratic party candidates for Mississippi’s First District congressional seat are as follows:
Republicans
Greg Davis - 8,649
Glenn McCullough Jr. - 1,866
Randy Russell - 1,661
Democrats
Travis Childers - 3,340
Marshall Coleman - 1,144
Steve Holland - 1,532
James Hurt - 624
Brian Neely - 1,501
These numbers are not expected to change upon certification, Klein said.
The results indicate there will be a runoff election April 1 in the Democratic party’s First District congressional race between Travis Childers, the Prentiss County Chancery Court clerk, and state Rep. Steve Holland of Plantersville. District-wide, Childers received 41 percent of the vote to Holland’s 31 percent.
Also according to district-wide returns, the runoff election will also include candidates for the Republican party’s First District congressional seat, former Tupelo mayor Glenn McCullough Jr. and Southaven mayor Greg Davis. The unofficial results show McCullough leading the race with 16,779 votes, or 39 percent, to Davis’s 16,024 votes, or 37 percent.
Those citizens who voted in the March 11 primary election should be aware that they have to vote for a candidate in the same party in the April 1 runoff election, Klein said. Those who did not vote in the March 11 primary will be able to vote in the runoff for the candidate of their choice. Voters also have to have been on the poll books as of Feb. 10 to be eligible to vote in the runoff.
The winners of the runoff will meet in the November general election to fill the upcoming term of in the seat vacated by former Rep. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who was named by Gov. Haley Barbour to fill the Senate seat vacated by Trent Lott’s retirement.
Also, there will be an April 22 non-partisan special election to fill the remaining months of the current U.S. House term until it expires in January.
DeSoto County voters last week also participated in the state’s presidential primary and the Democratic primary to choose a challenger for unopposed Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., in November.
Uncertified returns are as follows:
U.S. Senate:
Republican
Thad Cochran - 10,996
Democrat
Erik Fleming - 5,023
Shawn O’Hara - 3,125
U.S. President:
Republican
John McCain - 8,545
Democrat
Hillary Clinton - 5,361
Barack Obama - 4,604
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