WOODVILLE — Vote counting in Wilkinson County continued into the night, and at 11 p.m. there were no results.

Polls closed at 7 p.m. and the first precinct box arrived at the county courthouse at approximately 7:50 p.m.

Only two candidates, Sheriff Reginald Jackson and challenger Calvin Gaines were on Tuesday’s ballot.

Keeping watchful eyes over the vote counting were staff members from the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office, Mississippi Bureau of Investigation agents, a U.S. Marshal, a state policeman and a representative of the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office.

The election came under scrutiny even before Tuesday when Jackson filed a motion to move the election to a later day because early voting did not begin when it was supposed to and because the election was not properly advertised.

During early voting, two different ballots were used, one which listed Jackson’s name first and the other, which listed Gaines’, name first. Jackson’s attorney, Everett Sanders, called the use of two ballots during voting — election officials said the switch was made during a correction to a filing mistake — a “built-in election contest.”

All of the paper ballots — absentee, affidavit and curbside ballots — had to be hand counted by members of the Wilkinson County election commission because of the ballot change.

Judge Robert Gibbs, one of the special masters in the election, observed the counting with a representative from the attorney general’s office.

In response to Jackson’s request to delay the election, Judge Jim Persons ruled that the election had to continue Tuesday, but that if a candidate had objections to the early voting system they could file for post-election relief — in other words, they could file an election contest.

Even with all of the official observation and even before counting began, Everlener Jackson — the sheriff’s sister — said she did not believe the election was fair.The number of people in the front of the courtroom, where the ballots were counted, troubled her, Jackson said.

“There are too many people up there,” she said. “They just want to take control.”

Centreville precinct 1 poll worker Gloria Davis, however, said she did believe the election was fair. “We just did everything by the rules, so it was fair as far as I am concerned,” Davis said. “We didn’t have a single difficulty.”