A paltry 1.08% of the county's 9,552 registered voters cast a ballot in Tuesday's Republican primary runoff election in Tallahatchie County, meaning each of the 103 total votes cost the taxpayers about $140.
Oh, and in case anyone might be interested, Andrew Scott Smith tallied 52 votes in Tallahatchie County. Ron Eller received 51.
A very low turnout was expected — at the end of the night, Tallahatchie County Circuit Clerk Daphane Neal said she privately had predicted 100 votes would be cast — but this was, perhaps, a record low turnout for any countywide election in the history of the heavily Democratic-leaning county.
Neal said Tuesday's runoff will end up costing the county somewhere between $14,000 and $15,000.
Assuming the lower overall cost, that means Tallahatchie County taxpayers spent $135.92 for each of the 103 votes cast. Bump the expense to $15,000, and the per-vote cost rises to $145.63.
The Murphreesboro precinct had the most voters Tuesday, with 14 of 263 registered voters (5.32%) casting a ballot.
Rosebloom saw the largest percent of voter participation, with 11 of 174 voters (6.32%) voting.
One vote was cast at Tutwiler, where 1,015 are registered — a turnout of 0.10%.
In the county's largest precinct based on registered voters, Charleston Beat 2, nine people voted out of 1,380 registered there.
There were no votes cast at the Brazil, Glendora, Spring Hill, Sumner Beat 5 and Webb Beat 4 precincts.
Only four local absentee ballots were cast countywide in advance of the runoff.
Districtwide, Second Congressional District voters gave Eller a clear win over Smith.
With about 60% of votes counted districtwide Tuesday night, Eller led 3,421 (76.3%) to Scott's 1,064 (23.7%).
Eller now advances to face longtime Democratic incumbent, 2nd District U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, in November's general election.
Thompson, who has represented the district since winning a special election in 1993 and is presently the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, was unopposed for his party's nomination in the earlier primary.
