Another close Mississippi municipal election under a cloud of fraud allegations – what happens next? Democrat incumbent Mayor Johnny DuPree has been certified the winner over independent challenger Dave Ware, by a margin of 37 votes, but: “The drama surrounding June 4’s contested mayoral election drags on” as “irregularities bubble to the surface,” including “ballots with just two mayoral candidates, according to the claims of several voters” and ballots left unsecured overnight in an “unlocked City Hall and vault.” More disturbing is “the strange case of voter Mitchell Carter who claims he shared a Rowan school polling booth with a DuPree campaign worker who voted on his behalf, though not for the candidate of his choice [Ware].” 18-year-old Carter tells his story in video at the link: “It just happened that quick… They went out and picked out all the younger people to make them vote for DuPree, because they don’t know about all the politics and whatnot… My mom is saying African Americans, we worked hard to vote, you know what I’m saying? And when you strip that right, that’s like disrespecting the whole Civil Rights movement, you know?” What’s next? Likely a court ruling on “whether enough incidents of illegal votes altered the election,” predicts former University of Southern Mississippi political science professor and DuPree supporter Joe Parker, who believes DuPree will “come out OK in the end,” quoting President John F. Kennedy after his narrow defeat of challenger Richard Nixon in the 1960 election: “Mandate. Schmandate. I’m here (in office), and he’s (Nixon) there.”