TUPELO (AP) — When voters went to the polls this month in five northeast Mississippi cities, residents got to choose their police chief or town marshal.

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports that two more towns will have similar votes next month in the general election.

Electing police chiefs was once the norm, but it is now the exception in Mississippi. Of 275 police chiefs across the state, the vast majority are appointed.

Just 11 elected positions (4 percent) remain in Mississippi, and most of those are in the northeast corner of the state — Aberdeen, Amory, Baldwyn, Corinth, Houston, Iuka, Nettleton, New Albany and Okolona. The other two elected chiefs are in Brookhaven and Forest.