The qualifying period has opened for two Tallahatchie County positions that will be up for special election this fall, county Election Commissioner Yolanda D. Cotton said Monday.
Cotton noted that qualifying forms are now available at the circuit clerk offices for the positions of District 2 constable and Education District 3 school board member.
Special elections for both seats will coincide with the Nov. 5 general election for president and other offices.
Cotton said Sept. 5 will be the candidate qualifying deadline for both the constable and ED 3 school posts.
The special election for District 2 constable will seek to determine who will serve out the remaining three-plus years of the unexpired term of late longtime Constable Clifton H. Bailey.
Mr. Bailey died Jan. 27 of end-stage renal disease after serving just shy of 28 years as Tallahatchie County constable in the Second Judicial District.
He was reelected last year to a new four-year term that began on Jan. 1 this year.
In February, the Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors appointed Mr. Bailey’s wife, Sharon E. Jackson-Bailey, to fill her late husband’s vacant post on an interim basis pending the special election.
One-term Education District 3 school trustee Edith Gipson did not seek reelection last fall, and no one else qualified for her seat on the West Tallahatchie School District Board of Trustees.
The school board chose not to appoint anyone to fill the ED 3 position, which became vacant in January at the end of Gipson’s term.
On June 11, the WTSD Board of Trustees voted to request that a special election for the vacant ED 3 post be conducted on Nov. 5.
