Two precincts see change in upcoming election

Published 7:04 pm Saturday, November 5, 2016

Absentee voting is over, and Lincoln County voters will have one final chance to vote Tuesday from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Voters will need to go to the correct polling place to vote Tuesday and two voting precincts have changed polling places this year. The City Hall precinct moved from the Chamber of Commerce to the Lincoln County Public Library on 100 S. Jackson St. in order to ensure that the polling place was compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“The Chamber of Commerce was a historical building, and it’s not ADA compliant,” Lincoln County Circuit Clerk Dustin Bairfield said. “The last year or two we were trying to find a way to make it handicap accessible, but there’s not really enough room on the sidewalk to do a ramp.”

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The Pearlhaven precinct also moved from AbilityWorks to the Bicentennial Building on 200 Main St. Bairfield said the move was to make room for school events held at the old location.

There has been some uncertainty this year about the frequency of voter fraud, but Bairfield said there are several protections in place to ensure that votes are fair.

Mississippi uses electronic voting machines, but they cannot be hacked remotely because they aren’t connected to the internet. Instead, machines are programmed by Bairfield himself.

Seals ensure the machines haven’t been tampered with after being set up, and at the beginning of voting, a tally is printed from the machine to ensure that there are zero votes in the machine.

There are 24,929 registered voters in Lincoln County — 21,000 of whom are active.

Inactive voters, who have moved or had mail returned may still vote in Lincoln County as long as they are still living in the county, but they must sign an affidavit with a new address.

“We do verify those,” Bairfield said. “We usually only average 100 or less.”

Absentee votes are also common. Bairfield said he’s gotten as many as 60 absentee votes a day for a total of 1,477 as of today. While the circuit clerk’s office has been busy, he said the numbers are in line with most presidential elections. In 2012, the circuit clerk’s office received 1,823 absentee ballots, he said.

Absentee ballots that are mailed must be in Bairfield’s office by the end of day Monday to be counted in full. Absentee ballots received Tuesday will only be counted for the presidential race, he said. That’s a federal rule.

No hand delivered absentee ballots will be accepted.

Absentee votes do not use the voting machines, but they are machine scanned. The final tally will be added up Tuesday night.

According to District 39 Sen. Sally Doty, R-Brookhaven, who serves as chairman of the election committee, penalties for election crimes were increased in the 2016 legislative session.

“The presidential elections are held at local levels, and I have faith in these local officials across our nation to do their jobs and conduct a fair election,” Doty said.

Doty said she will be working to clean up and modernize election laws in the coming years, but it will take time.

“Election laws are very complex and technical,” she said. “The major bill I handled last year was over 500 pages long. I believe it’s prudent to make small steps toward any election changes.”

Precinct list

• Alexander — Alexander Jr. High, 713 Beauregard Street School Auditorium

• East Lincoln — East Lincoln Volunteer Fire Department, 3357 East Lincoln Road

• Fair River — 2728 Harmony Drive SE.

• Forrestry — 515 County Farm Lane NE.

• Governmental Complex — Lincoln County Government Complex, 301 S. First St., Board Room

• High School — Brookhaven High School, 433 E. Monticello St., Vocational Building

• Pearlhaven — Bicentennial Building, 200 Main St.

• Big Springs — Big Springs Baptist Church, 3659 Turpin Road NE.

• Brignal — Brignal Voting Center, 2240 Brignal Road, on the corner of Brignal Road and Howard

• Heucks Retreat — Heucks Retreat Volunteer Fire Department, 1855 Callender Road NE.

• Little Bahal — Little Bahala Baptist Church, 3034 Faith Lane NE., Wesso

• Montgomery — Burk’s Company Building, 2423 Clear Branch Lane at Furris Mill Road, Wesson

• New Sight — New Sight Volunteer Fire Department, 371 New Hope Trail

• Rogers Circle — Beulah Chapel Church, 1315 Brignal Road

• Bogue Chitto — Bogue Chitto Volunteer Fire Department, 357 Bogue Chitto Road SE.

• City Hall — Lincoln County Public Library, 100 S. Jackson St.

• Enterprise — Enterprise Attendance Center, 1601 Hwy. 583 SE., Bogue Chitto

• Norfield — Voting House, 3127 Hwy. 51 SE., Bogue Chitto

• Old Brook — Brookhaven Equipment Building, 1146 S. First Street NE.

• Ruth — Ruth Volunteer Fire Department, 3531 Hwy. 583 SE., Ruth

• Arlington — County Unit Facility District 4, 1280 Bogue Chitto Road SW., Bogue Chitto

• Halbert Heights — Brookhaven Central Fire Station, 314 Brookhaven St.

• Johnson — 519 Beachnut Trail SW., next to Montgomery Baptist Church, Summit

• Johnson Grove — Behind Johnson Grove Church of Christ, 434 Johnson Grove Road, Bogue Chitto

• West Lincoln — Voting House, next to West Lincoln school, 969 Jackson Liberty Drive SW.

• Caseyville — Voting House, 3699 Caseyville Road NW. South Side Wesson

• Lipsey — Lipsey School gym, 412 Drury Lane

• Loyd Star — Lloyd Star Volunteer Fire Department, 1904 Hwy. 550 NW.

• Old Red Star — Voting House, 3002 Old Red Star Drive NW.

• Vaughn — Voting House, 1340 Jackson Liberty Road NW.

• Zetus — Zetus Volunteer Fire Department, 482 Watts Lane NW.

Sample ballot

The following is information from the official Lincoln County ballot:

President and  vice president:

• Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine — Democrat

• Donald J. Trump and Michael R. Pence — Republican

• Darrell Castle and Scott N. Bradley — Constitution

• ‘Rocky’ Roque De La Fuente and Michael Steinberg — American Delta

• Jim Hedges and Bill Bayes — Prohibition

• Gary Johnson and Bill Weld — Libertarian

• Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka — Green

U.S. House of Representatives Third Congressional District:

• Gregg Harper — Republican

• Dennis C. Quinn — Democrat

• Roger I. Gerrard — Veterans

• Lejena Sheets — Reform

Nonpartisan Supreme Court Justice District 2 (Southern) Position 2:

• Dawn H. Beam

• Michael T. Shareef

Lincoln County Election Commissioner:

District One

• James V. Tillman — Democrat

District Two

• Tiffany Lynne Furr — Republican

District Three

• Ernie L. Clark — Republican

• Stanton L. Long — Republican

District Four

• John A. Giust — Republican

District Five

• Marsha Britt Warren — Republican