The Mississippi County Election Commission met on Thursday to set polling locations and times for the run-off elections occurring in three municipalities within the county; Manila, Luxora and Gosnell.
The run-off election will be held on December 4 from 7:30 a.m.. to 7:30 p.m. at the selected polling locations, which include the community center in Gosnell, the Charles Strong Recreational Center in Luxora and the Manila Depot Center in Manila.
Polling locations will be the same for both early voting and Election Day voting. Early voting will begin on November 27 and last until December 3 and will take place between 9:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on those days. Early voting will not take place on Saturday.
"We are only going to have one polling place in Gosnell. I have talked to both candidates and have talked to a concerned citizen out there and they agree that is the best solution. We will post a notice on the Firm Foundation and the door of the school so that there should be no confusion," Election Commissioner Tom Wiktorek said.
Election Coordinator Melissa Logan also made a motion that the commission use poll workers that are not residents of the locations that the run-offs are being held at. She stated that the reason being was due to the amount of confusion that occurs at some of the precincts.
"We will pull in some more people maybe from Dell or Leachville and we will just make a polling precinct there (Manila) and then in Luxora, we will get some more Blytheville people or maybe some people from Osceola and then in Gosnell the same thing…those people don't have an interest in that particular municipality and so they wouldn't have any reason to do anything other than run a good polling station," Logan said.
Wiktorek stated that according to the law, the poll workers are supposed to be from the precinct that the election takes place in except in the condition of an "emergency". He stated that he believes that this qualifies as a minor emergency. Logan stated that she agreed, but the commission also adopted a motion that when workers were trained by the commission in Mississippi County, they can work at any precinct that the commission needs them to. After some discussion, the commission agreed and passed the motion. The commission also discussed the possibility of any candidate contesting the results of the election. The commission stated that after the results were certified, which is set for November 13, the public would have seven days to contest the results of an election.
gwilliams@blyhtevillecourier.com