The Mississippi County Election Commission met Monday morning in order to rule on provisional ballots (absentee and otherwise), county overseas absentee ballots and to certify the election results. After two meetings that lasted 3 ½ hours, all were accomplished except for the certification. The Commission was unable to certify the results Monday due to irregularities that occurred on Election Day in the city of Dyess.
During the portion of the meeting when the commission was called upon to rule on challenged absentee ballots with conflicting signatures, there were a total of 10 absentee ballots from Blytheville and 14 ballots from Osceola that were ruled upon. Only one Blytheville ballot was deemed to be a legal, countable vote, as were six from Osceola.
However, of the nine non-permitted Blytheville absentee ballots, eight of them will be sent to the prosecuting attorney's office to investigate for possible election fraud. Of the seven non-permitted absentee ballots from Osceola, five of them will also be sent to the prosecuting attorney, including the ballot with a voter name listed as "Jasper Jackson, II"-- Luxora Mayor Jasper Jackson's son.
"We'll turn them over and I hope that he will be investigating them; but I don't have a lot of hope because in the past they have been pretty well satisfied once the election has been completed," Mississippi County Election Commission Chairman Tom Wiktorek said when asked about the decision to turn the questionable absentee ballots over to the prosecuting attorney's office.
When asked if Mississippi County has a significant issue with ballot fraud, Wiktorek answered, "No. I think we have a little bit of retail fraud. But those are mostly people that are trying to be a bit too helpful - especially with husbands and wives. I think there might be a little bit in Osceola...but no wholesale fraud like ballot stuffing."
In another issue that the commission confronted, there were 85 eligible voters that signed in to vote at the Dyess Community Center on Election Day intending to vote in the Dyess Recorder/Treasurer race between Mariea Reavis and Ashley D. Gilmore. Vote totals counted on Nov. 8 ended with Reavis leading Gilmore by a vote of 36-35.
Multiple voters, however, protested to poll workers that the Treasurers race was not included on their ballot. When the concern was raised, poll workers were not able to correct the problem. Therefore the Election Commission has decided to contact those persons that signed in that day and "redo" the vote. Only those that showed up on Election Day and signed-in will be allowed to vote.
"We had poll workers in Dyess that didn't give people the right ballot. We think there were 15 people that didn't get the right ballot and I have talked with the Mayor down there. We are going to meet with him and the city council tomorrow (Tuesday) night and we are going to revote those 85 people at some point in time in the very near future so that they have a fair chance; because the result was one vote difference," Wiktorek said. "My understanding is that some people did question that they didn't have the right ballot and the poll workers weren't trained well enough by me to know that they didn't have the right ballot."
Election Coordinator George Hale interrupted Wiktorek and said, "Or me. You don't have to take it all."
"Anyhow we are going to correct the situation. They just didn't know to look for two ballots. And the voters brought it up to the poll workers and the poll workers didn't know how to do the difference until [Election Commissioner] Miller [Wilson] squared them away - later in the day," Wiktorek added.
When asked if all 15 voters complained, Wiktorek answered, "There were some that told the poll workers and the poll workers were not aware of what they had to do. But we can see from her [County Clerk Janice Currie] tablets that there were 85 people that showed up that were eligible to vote in that election and only 61 cast ballots. Nine didn't vote at all in that race. So there were only 70 ballots that were issued in that race and there were 85 eligible people showed up at the polls."
The Chairman explained, "We're not going to certify any of these results until after that race...that is why we give unofficial results because when we have small problems like this, we correct them to the best of our ability."
"And this is a small problem," Hale added. "Because we talked to the Mayor and a lot of people and they understand."
Runoffs will be held in Osceola and Leachville on Nov. 29. Early voting will be held from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 22, Nov. 23 and Nov. 28.
Osceola residents will be voting at the Osceola Courthouse in the Osceola City Council Ward 2, Position 2 runoff race between Sandra K. Brand and Tracy Adams. Brand received 41.52 percent and Adams received 32.46 percent on Election Day. Terry Cole was eliminated from the race after only garnering 25.92 percent of the vote.
Osceola residents will also be voting in the Osceola City Council Ward 3, Position 2 race between Shawn Chafin and Tyler Dunegan. Chafin received 39.67 percent of the vote and Dunegan received 37.46 percent of the vote on Election Day.
Scott Creecy was eliminated from the race after only garnering 22.87 percent of the vote.
Leachville residents will be voting at the ANC Library in Leachville in the race for Leachville City Council Ward 3, Position 2 between Rodney Robertson and Michael J. Webster. Roberson received 49.77 percent of the vote and Webster received 42.23 percent. James Keith was eliminated form the race after garnering only 7.99 percent of the vote.
Once the corrected vote is totaled, the vote totals for all races in the county are expected to be certified Friday morning.