Wayne Smith is the unofficial winner of the District 4 Chancery Judge’s Post 2 race, receiving 51 percent of the vote in a tight race against Tylertown attorney Conrad Mord in Tuesday’s runoff.
Smith, an attorney from Liberty, received 4,030 votes to Mord’s 3,861 across the court district covering Pike, Amite, Walthall and Franklin counties.
The unofficial results do not include affidavit ballots, which are not expected to affect the outcome in the race.
Tuesday’s election was marked by expected low turnout due to the Thanksgiving holiday and election fatigue. The runoff election marked the fourth trips to the polls in as many months for voters.
“Well, we both knew the challenge was to get the voters out. That’s what it wound up being. I don’t see anything I could have done better,” Smith said.
Mord said this morning that he is not ready to concede the election until he had a solid grasp on the results.
“There’s so much confusion. We’re in contact with circuit clerk offices trying to figure out the totals right now,” he said.
Smith could not be reached for comment this morning.
Smith will serve alongside current Chancellor Debbra Halford, who has been tackling a growing backlog of cases alone. After several failed attempts to add a second judge to the chancery court district, the Legislature gave the go-ahead for the position earlier this year.
According to the unofficial results, both candidates convincingly carried their home counties.
Mord nabbed 1,775 votes (83 percent) to Smith’s 364 (17 percent) in Walthall County.
In Amite County, Smith received 1,736 votes (82 percent) to Mord’s 384 (18 percent).
Both counties had a 17 percent voter turnout.
Smith also won Franklin County, which used paper ballots Tuesday, with a total of 434 votes (62 percent) to Mord’s 266 (38 percent).
But Pike County was more indicative of just how close the race was.
Precinct results revealed an even match throughout the night, with both candidates hovering above or below 50 percent. Smith won 11 of 25 precincts.
Two precincts resulted in a tie.
Unofficial results show Smith prevailed with 1,496 votes or 51 percent, to 1,436 for Mord. The results include absentee and curbside votes, but not six affidavit ballots.
Just 11 percent of eligible Pike County voters turned out for the election.
“They say turkey puts you to sleep. Well, with this election, maybe that’s what happened to voters,” Pike County Election Commissioner Trudy Berger said.“Turnout was anemic.”
Berger said the fact that this was the only race on Tuesday’s ballots might have had an impact on low voter turnout.
“I think the lesson is that it’s very difficult to get people to come out and vote in an election in a single-issue election. It’s always difficult, particularly in a county that neither candidate comes from. It’s also extremely difficult to get people out during a holiday week, and I think that was proven last night,” Berger said.
But she said low turnout validates the importance of the individual vote.
“The votes really counted in this one. People say their vote doesn’t count. This proves it does,” Berger said.
Besides this race, there was only one other election being decided in Mississippi on Tuesday — a circuit judge’s seat in Madison and Rankin counties. Media outlets reported low voter turnout there as well.
Mord thanked his supporters and said he didn’t anticipate any problems between himself and Smith if official results indicate Smith the election winner.
“I’m very proud of my committee and supporters. It was just an awkward time to have a runoff. I’ll be working with him in the future. I don’t see any problems,” he said.
