Currie claims GOP victory in District 92 race
Published 5:00 am Friday, August 10, 2007
After various delays and much ado, the results of the House ofRepresentatives District 92 Republican primary election are final,and Becky Currie will face D.W. Maxwell in the November 6 generalelection.
Copiah County was part of the holdup in the final electionresults, as some affidavit ballots had yet to be counted as ofThursday morning.
Copiah County Circuit Clerk Edna Stevens affirmed that theelection results, affidavit ballots and all, were finalizedThursday afternoon. The county totals in District 92 did not changeafter no affidavit ballots needed to be counted in thoseprecincts.
“It’s a very small area down there in District 92,” saidStevens, explaining why the totals were low. “It’s half of theWesson precinct and a minute portion of Beauregard.”
The final Copiah County numbers ended with Currie carrying 26votes, Barnett with 18, and Gene Buckles with five.
The overall totals for Copiah, Lincoln and Franklin countiesshowed Currie with 523 votes, Barnett with 457, and Buckles with49. Currie had 50.8 percent of the vote.
Currie said she hadn’t been prepared for a wait. But now thatshe’s seen how the system works, she won’t be surprised nexttime.
“I guess I thought along with everyone else in the world thatthe new machines would make things quicker,” she said. “The voteshave to be certified by so many people. I didn’t realize it was somuch work for the circuit clerks and chairmen of parties andelections commissioners.”
Currie said the election was well-run by everyone, and that shefelt grateful to have emerged the winner.
“Everybody ran a good campaign and I thought District 92 is solucky to have had a lot of good candidates to choose from,” shesaid. “I’m very pleased there’s no runoff. And the waiting wastough.”
Currie said the next step is to take a break, then hit thecampaign trail again in order to prepare for November.
“I’m going to take a couple of days off, then I’m going to startMonday working as hard as we did before,” she said. “I’ve got agood group of workers and campaign volunteers and the Republicanparty has been in touch. We’re planning ahead, even possibly tosome events with the Governor (Haley Barbour) and Phil Bryant, andI’m excited about that.”
Barnett was unavailable for comment.