photo by Destiney Robb

Larry Gardner installs a roll of paper into voting machines at the Kingston Volunteer Fire Department Monday morning. Gardner spent Monday setting up machines for today's elections.

Local, state races on today's ballot

By Katie Stallcup (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Tuesday, November 6, 2007

NATCHEZ — After months of considering campaigns and narrowing down candidates, Adams County voters will decide who will represent them for the next four years.

Unlike in the party-specific primaries, registered voters can cast their ballots for anyone they choose, Elections Commission Chair Larry Gardner said Monday.

“Whether you’re Independent, Republican or Democrat, you can vote in this election,” Gardner said. “You aren’t limited to a party.”

And voters don’t have to vote the same party they did in the primaries, he said.

Election commissioners were busy Monday preparing for today’s elections, setting up voting machines, organizing sign-in books and making sure everything was ready.

Gardner said he didn’t expect an overwhelming turnout today because of the relatively few absentee ballots cast — roughly 300 at last count.

“Usually absentee ballots are an indication,” Gardner said. “In the first election, with both parties and a lot of local candidates, there was a lot of local interest. We had 1,200 absentee ballots. In the runoff, it dropped to 600.

“If this is any kind of indication, the voter turnout probably will not be as heavy as we’d like it to be.”

District 1 and 2 might be an exception, since residents must vote on supervisors in those districts.

“There hasn’t been a lot of campaigning on state levels locally, so I think your biggest boxes are going to be (Districts) 1 and 2,” he said.

Gardner said he thought today’s elections should run pretty smoothly, especially since many voters had had a chance to use the relatively new voting machines.

“We got a good turnout at the primaries, which I think helped out,” he said.

“About 90 percent of the people who vote regularly should have had some experience on the machines.”

Voters should make sure to cast their ballot in the precinct in which they live in order to have their ballots counted.