Barbour sued over ballot configuration

The Hattiesburg American, 9/10/8

A Democratic county election commissioner is suing Mississippi’s Republican governor for putting the special election for Trent Lott’s U.S. Senate seat near the bottom of the ballot this fall.

Trudy Berger, a commissioner in south Mississippi’s Pike County, filed the lawsuit Tuesday, hours after Gov. Haley Barbour set the ballot order.

Berger said voters might not be able to find the Senate race between Democrat Ronnie Musgrove and Republican Roger Wicker if it’s buried beneath contests for school board, local election commissioners and levee boards.

“When voters get confused on a ballot, bad things happen. It takes longer for them to cast their vote,” Berger told Barbour at a public meeting Tuesday.