Sec of state distributes disputed Miss. ballot
Staffers for the Mississippi secretary of state’s office worked late Wednesday to distribute a sample ballot to local election officials – a move that could thwart Democrats’ attempts to challenge the bottom-of-the-ballot placement of a special election for Trent Lott’s old Senate seat.
“They got it out last night at 10 o’clock,” Pamela Weaver, spokeswoman for Republican Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Wednesday was the deadline for a sample ballot to be sent to local election commissioners so they can prepare paper ballots for absentee voters and, in most counties, electronic ballots for the Nov. 4 election.
The scramble to distribute the ballot came shortly after three Mississippi Supreme Court justices filed papers setting aside an order by a lower-court judge that had temporarily blocked the release of a disputed sample ballot. Near the bottom of the ballot is the special Senate election between Republican Roger Wicker and Democrat Ronnie Musgrove. The justices’ decision was filed after business hours, when most state offices were closed.
The Supreme Court justices acted on a request from Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, but didn’t give the governor everything he wanted.
Barbour filed papers Wednesday asking justices to toss out the entire lawsuit that Democrats filed against him over his decision Tuesday that the Wicker-Musgrove race would appear near the bottom of the ballot. Barbour said he wanted to separate the special election from the regular elections.
Trudy Berger, the Pike County elections commissioner who sued the governor, said the Musgrove-Wicker race is one of the most important elections this year and some voters will become confused if it’s not near other federal contests at the top of the ballot.
Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green was scheduled to hear arguments Thursday.
NE MS Daily Journal
9/11/8
Magnolia Tribune
