The Caledonia Board of Aldermen held its second “last” meeting with the current make-up Wednesday, selecting commissioners and a poll worker for the upcoming municipal election and approving a motion to end the use of paper ballots for future municipal elections.
The meeting, led by mayor Bill Lawrence, with aldermen Bill Darnell, Quinn Parham, Mitch Wiggins and Brenda Willis, met for the last time (Alderman Steve Honnoll was not present) after the town’s June 8 election was thrown out and a new election was scheduled for July 18.
Only Darnell and Parham are running for re-election to the board of aldermen, while Wiggins is challenging Lawrence for the mayor’s office.
The meeting was necessary to appoint election commissioners, whose terms also expire after four years, for the July 18 election.
“We have three people who are qualified and have agreed to serve,” Lawrence told the aldermen. “The ones we have are Donna Egger, Martha Hopkins and Betty Kirkland and we’re happy to have them.”
All three served on previous election commission, along with Ken Byars and Mildred Wiggins, both of whom resigned after the aborted June 8 election.
Byars, who chaired the commission, resigned after admitting he had taken home the unsealed ballot box on election night. Mildred Wiggins stepped down after a new election was called because she is Mitch Wiggins’ aunt.
The board also approved Vikki Bruce to serve as a poll worker.
In a proposal added to the agenda at the start of the meeting, Mitch Wiggins offered a motion requiring the town to use voting machines in future municipal elections. The board unanimously approved the proposal, making the July 18 election the last in Caledonia in which paper ballots will be used.
The June 8 election, which was ultimately thrown out after it was determined that the ballot box had been handled illegally, featured some confusion with the counting of the paper ballots, which resulted in three different tallies in the tightly-contested mayor’s race in three counts.
A fourth planned count was abandoned when the election commission was informed of the mishandling of the ballot box.
“I think it would be good for this board to end on a high note,” Mitch Wiggins said. “I’ve got a written motion here that I’ll let y’all look at. In simple terms, it says we won’t have any more elections in Caledonia using paper ballots after the one we have scheduled.”
Mitch Wiggins’ proposal called for the purchase or rental of one or more voting machines, but was amended when Town Clerk Lindy Thomason said she had talked to the Lowndes County circuit clerk’s office about the possibility of using the county’s voting machines.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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