Procedures turning into an issue again
Wednesday started with the promise of declaring a winner in Hattiesburg’s special mayoral election. It soon turned into a comedy of errors, however, as the election commission ran into roadblock after roadblock in its attempt to count more than 1,000 absentee ballots.
“The nightmare continues,” said a beleaguered commission chairman Joe Kinnan at one point — after three consecutive precinct boxes had to be immediately resealed because of failures to follow absentee ballot procedures…
At Tuesday’s end, independent challenger Dave Ware held a slim 32-vote lead over incumbent Democrat Johnny DuPree based on electronic votes from 14 precincts…
“Having these delays causes people to lack confidence in the process,” said Malcolm Jones, a Ware observer and attorney… But Jones also said he believed that Hattiesburg did a better job conducting the special election than the June 4 general election, which Ware challenged in a high-profile trial in July. The controversy surrounding that election forced City Clerk Eddie Myers to resign and brought about the appointment of all new election commissioners.