While most of Clarksdale and Coahoma County will not vote until the Nov. 7, General Election, Clarksdale Ward 2 residents get an extra chance to do their civic duty Tuesday as they seek to fill a city Commissioner post.
Alfred Allen and Jimmy Harris will be the only two candidates on the runoff ballot handed to Ward 2 voters at the Civic Auditorium Tuesday Oct. 24, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Harris and Allen waded through a field of seven candidates and were the top two vote-getters, but neither got the 50-percent-plus-one-vote necessary to claim the Oct. 3 election. Harris got 29-percent or 209 votes to Allen’s 24-percent or 172 ballots. The other five candidates collected 333 votes of the 660 ballots cast.
The winner of this election will take his seat on the Clarksdale Board of Mayor and Commissioners immediately.
Voting is only open to registered voters in Ward 2.
Absentee voting is complete and traditionally those votes are counted on Election Day by the City Election Commission. Poll workers will allow anyone to vote an affidavit ballot on Election Day and that ballot will be vetted by the City Election Commission at City Hall after the polls close Tuesday night
The City Election Commission, made up of Sanford Johnson, Anne Clark and Rivers Humber.
All ballots cast at the Civic Auditorium Ward 2 precinct will be counted there Tuesday night. Election machines allow those numbers to be compiled almost immediately after the polls close.
The next full city election will be held in the Spring of 2025.
The Mayor and all four city Commissioners will be on the ballot at that time.
City last voted for city leaders in May 2021 with Mayor Chuck Espy, Ward 1 Commissioner Bo Plunk, Ward 2 Commissioner Ken Murphey, Ward 3 Commissioner Willie Turner and Ward 4 Commissioner Ed Seals elected.
At their next meeting the Mayor and Commissioners voted themselves the largest pay raise in city and state history. The Mayor’s annual salary went from $86,422 to $112,241 while Commissioners’ pay almost doubled from $24,050 to $46,650.
The Mayor’s post is an executive position and is considered a full time job under Clarksdale’s weak mayor form of government. A weak mayor only votes if the city’s four commissioners tie on a 2-2 vote. As city executive the Mayor executes the decisions of commissioners and handles day-to-day business of the city.
Commissioners have traditionally been seen as part-time jobs under Clarksdale’s form of municipal government. They regularly meet the second and fourth Monday of each month with “vetting” meetings held the Thursday prior. Commissioners can also call special or emergency meetings.
Those wanting to qualify for the Spring 2025 City Election can do so at City Hall on Jan. 2, 2025.
The death of Commissioner Ken Murphey in August prompted Tuesday’s special election to fill the Ward 2 spot.
Clarksdale’s Ward 2 Commissioner Ken Murphey passed away shortly after midnight Wednesday Aug. 23 at a hospital in Oxford.
Murphey, 52, had been diagnosed with cancer earlier this summer.
Murphey was first elected as a City Commissioner in 2013 and was re-elected in 2017 and 2021. He had served a total of 10 years for the city and was a major proponent of downtown restoration and development.
Murphey was also a champion of efforts to clean up Clarksdale and any program that dealt with children, sports and city parks.
