Three days after ballot counting began, unofficial and uncertified numbers from McComb’s municipal primaries are in, and while the numbers have changed, the outcome of the contests after the counting of in-person ballots on Tuesday night have not.
Municipal party officials and election commissioners wrapped up the counting of absentee and most of the affidavit ballots around 5 p.m. Thursday at McComb City Hall.
The numbers still must be certified by state elections officials.
Despite completing ballot counting, local election officials refused to release vote totals Thursday except for the top finishers, saying they would wait until certified results would be returned, which would likely be today. The totals would include a breakdown of ward-by-ward results.
The gap between the top two finishers in the Democratic mayoral primary, former Mayor Zach Patterson and former city administrator Quordinah Lockley, narrowed to just nine votes after all of the ballots were counted, with Patterson leading 458-449.
They are the only two candidates to advance to a May 15 runoff since neither could pass the threshold of 50 percent of the vote plus one.
Republican mayoral candidate Tommy McKenzie finished with 711 votes, according to the most recent totals.
Democratic selectman-at-large candidate and current Ward 4 Selectman Donovan Hill received 759 votes, while Republican nominee Vickie Webb received 498.
In Ward 1, Republican incumbent Ted Tullos received 416 votes to win a third term without opposition in the June 19 general election.
In Ward 2 Bruce Mullins topped Christopher Upchurch 97-77 to receive the Democratic nomination. Republican incumbent Michael Cameron ran unopposed and received 273 votes.
In Ward 3, the closest race in the election, Devante Johnson squeaked out a win, garnering 132 votes to Terri Waterman-Baylor’s 128 in the Democratic primary. Three affidavit ballots cast because voters lacked identification have yet to be counted in Ward 3, but even if they are included it wouldn’t change the outcome of the election.
In Ward 4, Shawn Williams defeated fellow Democrat Eddie Thompson 188 to 125 to claim the seat outright since there is no Republican opposition.
Williams will join Tullos and Johnson on the city board when the next term begins in July.
In Ward 5 Democratic incumbent, Ronnie Brock and Republican challenger Jimmy Price both ran unopposed in the primary and will face off in the general election. Brock received 293 votes to Price’s 13.
The city hired Election Systems & Software in Jackson to handle vote tabulation, which dragged on for two days after polls closed.
A group of officials including an ESS employee, city election commissioner Bonnie Hudon and local party executive committee members worked from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday.
Republican Executive Committee member Malcolm Allen said he hopes the work the group did serves as an example to the rest of the city, noting how officials from two different political parties endured a lengthy process and aside their differences to get the job done.
“They’ve worked well together,” Hudon said.
The length of time it took give unofficial numbers Tuesday night — four hours from when polls closed at 7 p.m. — have left unanswered questions and Hudon and executive committee members figuring out how to make the process a lot smoother for both the upcoming runoff and general election.
“I’m trained to use the TSX machines. I’m a polling manager for the county and we were trained on those machines. I’d never used this scanner and I had to have training for all of my pollworkers,” Hudon said.
For this election, the city used an AccuVote-OS Central Scanner and Tabulator from Election Systems and Software in Jackson.
Hudon said the decision to use the scanner was made by county election commissioners and the municipal Democratic Executive Committee.
A representative from ESS placed the ballots in the scanner one by one from 10 ballot boxes from five wards.
“I thought the scanner would be a lot faster,” Hudon said. “For the general election, I hope they send us one that can handle a lot of ballots.”
Democratic executive committee members Vernell Simmons and Mickel Sandifer said committee members had to count 90 ballots that the machine rejected. Once those were counted, they then had to add in absentee and affidavit ballots.
“There are still five affidavit ballots with no ID,” Hudon said.
“Will the numbers change when those five are counted?” Sandifer asked.
“No, they won’t make much of a difference,” Hudon said.
She said she hopes tabulation will run smoother for the runoff and general election.
“The scanners will be used for the run-off and for the general election,” Hudon said. “The run-off won’t be so bad because of it’s only one race, but for the general election, we will go back and be trained again. I scheduled another training session for next week so that we will have another week before the run-off.”
When asked if the city could have rented TSX machines for this election, Hudon said yes, but the city chose a different route.
“All of ours are broken in the county,” Simmons added.
After the 2016 Presidential election, a power surge at Election Central damaged the voting machines. The county and its insurance company are still ironing out the details from that incident.
“In this day and age with the advancement of technology, I think all voting should be done electronically,” Hudon said.
• Although McComb municipal elections are in June three of the seven elected positions on the city board have been settled following Tuesday’s primaries. The following will serve on the board when the new term begins in July:
Ward 1: Ted Tullos re-elected
Ward 3: Devante Johnson wins
Ward 4: Shawn Williams wins
