NATCHEZ — The key to the race for the Democratic nomination for Adams County Sheriff may lay in District 5.

Two candidates, Randy Freeman and Travis Patten, are in the running for the nomination after the Aug. 4 primary, which split the vote without a clear winner but knocked incumbent Sheriff Chuck Mayfield out of the race.

In the Aug. 4 race, Patten took 40.8 percent of the vote with 3,463 ballots, while Freeman received 34.3 percent. Mayfield’s unsuccessful bid for re-election took in 2,109 votes, or 24.9 percent.

“The swing vote in this election will probably be in District 5, because you still have a supervisors’ race on the side, so in the Airport, Foster Mound, Oakland and Washington precincts, there are more folks likely to come out to that race,” said local political observer Johnny Junkin. “If I was working an election, that’s where I’d be.”

Since the candidates are looking to close the gap between what they took and 50 percent of the vote, they’re going to have to work especially hard in areas where they didn’t perform as well before, Junkin said.

“Across the lines, they are going to have to go where they weren’t before, that is just the nature of the beast — if you don’t get them the first time, you go back and try again,” he said.

“Patten is going to have to come into the white community and get some support there. He did better in the predominantly black boxes, and from what I understand he has been out working in (white) areas.”

The key for a Freeman victory may be working to pick up Mayfield support, Junkin said.

“It is obvious Freeman has to pick up the lion’s share of Mayfield’s vote to make up the difference,” he said. “He should have some inroads in there because he has some common denominators, and I am sure they have common friends they split the first time.”

Former Judge John Hudson said he thinks the issue will be the Mayfield votes.

“Patten would have to take about 10 percent of that vote, and most of that vote comes from the white boxes,” Hudson said. “Since it is from the white boxes, that is a toss up where they will fall, but it is all about Mayfield’s vote and where those people can go and will go.”

The issue for the Freeman campaign will be to appeal to Mayfield supporters after an at-times heated campaign, Hudson said.

“It was a very hotly contested race, mostly between Freeman and Mayfield, so if they can overcome any animosity there was between them, they could take it,” he said.

Either scenario — Patten pulling an additional 10 percent of the white vote and Freeman appealing to Mayfield voters who may have been strong supporters before — is “very achievable,” Hudson said.

“Both candidates are well known in the community, both have the qualifications to be sheriff, and the focus has to be on both of their parts on how they can attract percentages from Mayfield’s vote,” he said. “There was a time when I would have said a front runner in the race wouldn’t win if he didn’t already have 45 percent of the vote, but this time it is different because the front-runner is not the incumbent and it was a very difficult race that was already run.”

The run-off is Aug. 25. The winner will face off against independent candidate Elvis Prater in the general election.