No local offices are up for grabs during next month’s primary elections for Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Clay or Noxubee counties.
When voters go to the polls June 3 to cast ballots, the only races on the ballot will be for a U.S. Senate and a House seat.
The Democratic primary will have Travis Childers, William Bond Compton Jr., Bill Marcy and Johnathan Rawl on the ballot for U.S. Senate.
The Republican primary will have Thomas Carey, Thad Cochran and Chris McDaniel in the U.S. Senate race.
Democrat voters in Lowndes and Clay counties will decide whether Ron Dickey or Rex Weathers will be the Democratic challenger of Republican incumbent Alan Nunnelee for the U.S. House of Representatives District 1 seat this November. Nunnelee does not have a primary opponent.
District 3 House incumbent Gregg Harper faces Hardy Caraway in the Republican primary in Oktibbeha and Noxubee counties. Democrats Jim Liljeberg, Doug Magee and Dennis Quinn are running in the Democratic primary for that seat.
This will be the first Mississippi election to require voters show identification in order to cast a ballot. Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, whose office implemented mandatory voter ID to prevent voter fraud, announced one week ago that 1,011 voter ID cards had been issued across the state. Six of those were in Lowndes County. In Oktibbeha County, 13 people had been issued ID cards. Fourteen have been issued cards in Noxubee County while 17 have been processed in Clay County.
Holmes County has issued the most IDs out of Mississippi’s 82 counties with 50.
Voters who already have a valid form of ID cannot receive a card. Valid forms of ID include: A driver’s license; a photo ID card issued by a branch, department or entity of the State of Mississippi; a U.S. passport; a government employee ID card; a firearms license; a student photo ID issued by an accredited Mississippi university, college, or community/junior college; a U.S. military ID; a tribal photo ID; any other photo ID issued by any branch, department, agency or entity of the U.S. government or any state government.
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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