By Staff
Nov. 10, 2002
From all indications, the process of voting and tabulating returns went well in Lauderdale County and most surrounding counties. Here locally, you can credit Circuit Clerk Donna Jill Johnson and election commissioners, most notably chairman Ann Watts, for providing the leadership to educate, train and equip poll workers.
A few minor difficulties had mostly to do with the weather. As in other Mississippi counties that use electronic scanning devices for tabulating votes, local election officials discovered the machines don't like moisture.
On election morning, a machine at the Mt. Gilead Baptist Church precinct jammed and wouldn't accept ballots. But poll workers quickly turned to an emergency ballot box to accommodate voters while technicians were summoned to replace a stuck paper roll.
The bottom line is that election days always carry the potential for problems and rain just gives the process another dimension. But there clearly is no substitute for having honest, professional, highly capable election officials who work diligently all year so that election day goes as smoothly as possible.
To all of our local election officials, we say "good job" with election day 2002. We'll see you again next year.