In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic voters turned out in record numbers last week to cast their ballots for the next President of the United States. As expected the vote count continues in parts of the country this week, however, national new outlets, on Saturday, projected Joe Biden to be the President-elect of the United States and his running mate Kamela Harris the vice president-elect. At press time, President Donald Trump had not conceded the election.
On the local level, unofficial returns show that Scott County overwhelmingly voted for Trump by a margin of 6,285 votes to Biden’s 4,328 votes.
Incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith won the race for U.S. Senate against challenger Mike Espy on the statewide level and also carried Scott County Hyde-Smith received 5,933 votes to Espy’s 4,647.
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In the Third Congressional District, incumbent Michael Guest held on to his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives defeating Dorothy Dot Benford. Guest also carried Scott County 6,341 votes to Benford’s 4,061.
Supreme Court Justice Kenny Griffis also returns to the bench and carried Scott County 6,320 votes to 3,619.
In the hotly contested race for District 8 Circuit Court Judge for Scott, Newton, Leake and Neshoba counties, challenger Caleb E. May defeated incumbent Brian K. Burns. May led the ticket in Scott County with 5,274 votes to Burns’ 4,702 votes. May also carried the other three counties.
Statewide the constitutional amendments to legalize medical marijuana, remove the clause that statewide elected officials must also garner a majority of the House districts, and for the approval of a new state flag all passed by overwhelming majorities. The same held true in Scott County with the initiative for medical marijuana receiving 6,070 votes for the approval of either Initiative 65 or 65-A and and 3,554 opposed with 5,957 voters giving the nod to Initiative 65 over 65-A’s 2,567 votes.
Resolution No. 47 which is the one chaning the way voters elect statewide offices, removing the House District clause, received 7,997 votes in favor of the change to 2,181 opposed to the change.
Ballot Measure 3, which was for an up or down vote on the design of a new state flag passed in Scott County 68.99 percent to 28.97 percent with 7,463 voters in favor of the design and 3,134 opposed. Countywide the new flag design was approved in all voting precincts with the exception of Beat 5/ Sebastopol, where the design was voted down by 12 votes, 220 opposed and 208 in favor.
There were also several uncontested races on the ballot.
• Leslie D. King ran unopposed for the Mississippi Supreme Court Position 2 seat.
• Sherrell Ann Brown ran unopposed for Election Commissioner 1.
• Carolyn E. Knowles ran unopposed for Election Commissioner 2.
• Virginia R. Hannah ran unopposed for Election Commissioner 3.
• Bettye Wallace Nelson ran unopposed for Election Commissioner 4.
• Delie Shepard ran unopposed for Election Commissioner 5
• Ben Byram ran unopposed for School Board of Education, District 5.
As for the coronavirus the latest numbers released by the Mississippi Department of Health at press time on Tuesday showed 933 new positive cases of the virus statewide that day with an additional 37 deaths. Those numbers added to the previous tally show 128,138 positive cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Mississippi since March 11 and there have been 3,480 deaths recorded.
Scott County is now reporting 1,342 positve cases since the pandemic and 29 deaths. That is an increase of 36 positive cases since the same reporting period last week, but zero new deaths.
Statewide some 111,430 residents are presumed to have recovered from the virus.
