Three candidates have filed qualifying papers to vie for a pair of Tallahatchie County offices up for grabs in this year’s Nov. 5 elections, according to documents on file as of Tuesday (Aug. 13) at the circuit clerk’s office in Charleston.
• Sharon Elaine Bailey, 58, of 156 Main St., Webb, filed a Qualifying Statement of Intent Aug. 7 to seek reelection to her West Tallahatchie School District Board of Trustees position in Education District 4.
Bailey, seeking a second five-year term on the school board, has simultaneously held her school trustee seat and the constable post in the county’s 2nd Judicial District for the past seven months.
Bailey is the widow of longtime 2nd District Constable Clifton Bailey, and when he died Jan. 27 of end-stage renal disease, she agreed to accept the Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors’ appointment to serve in his stead pending a special election to be held for the position in conjunction with the Nov. 5 presidential election.
• Shannon van der Poel, 34, of 1087 Cole Hill Road, Charleston, filed qualifying papers Aug. 9 to seek the office of justice court judge in the 1st Judicial District in a Nov. 5 special election.
Van der Poel, a longtime clerk in that Charleston office, presently holds the judge’s position on an interim basis after her Aug. 5 appointment by supervisors to fill the seat left vacant when the board appointed first-term justice judge incumbent Lance Tennyson to serve as interim county prosecutor.
Supervisors had declared the prosecutor’s office vacant after incumbent Carol Turner Felty, 48, placed her license to practice law on inactive status with The Mississippi Bar effective June 27.
A special election for the position of county prosecuting attorney will also appear on the general election ballot, but there were no qualifiers for that position as of Aug. 13.
• Charleston attorney Tara Loraine Lang, 54, of 256 N. Market St., Charleston, filed qualifying papers Aug. 12 to seek the office of justice court judge in the 1st Judicial District in the special election.
Lang has served for a number of years as the Charleston Municipal Court judge.
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In addition to special elections for county prosecutor, 1st District justice judge and 2nd District constable, a special election for a West Tallahatchie school board seat in Education District 3 will appear on some Nov. 5 ballots. One-term ED3 trustee Edith Gipson did not seek reelection last fall, and no one else qualified, leaving the seat vacant.
Along with the ED4 regular election, there also will be a regular election this fall in Education District 9, a seat on the East Tallahatchie School District Board of Trustees now held by Darrell W. Neal.
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The qualifying deadline for the special elections for constable and the ED3 post will be Thursday, Sept. 5, at 5 p.m.
The qualifying period for the special elections for Tallahatchie County prosecutor and justice judge opened Aug. 9, and the deadline to qualify is Thursday, Sept. 5, at 5 p.m.
The qualifying deadline for the regular school board elections in ED4 and ED9 is Friday, Sept. 6, at 5.
There is no qualifying fee, but a Qualifying Statement of Intent and a petition bearing the signatures of registered voters living within the boundaries of the office being sought are required. Fifty signatures are required for all of these petitions except that for the justice judge seat, which mandates only 15 signatures.
Properly formatted petition forms are available from the circuit clerk’s offices in Charleston (662-647-8758) and Sumner (662-375-8515).
