The system works.
While you may be dismayed by what politicians do once they get in office, we hope you never doubt the process that gets them there.
Coahoma County residents, Mississippians and all America head to the polls Tuesday to register their desire to vote, pick up a ballot and then quietly enter a voting booth where they will make their mark for their candidate.
While many things went on before that moment and things may not go smoothly on Election Day, we hope your faith in the system never waivers.
We may never have clean campaigns, but we must have clean elections.
Your Circuit Clerk is charged with implementing county elections and that clerk works with a long list of precinct judges, polling workers and party officials that run the nuts and bolts of local elections.
The clerk also watches over party primaries that are run by their respective party, but that process, those political machines and their shenanigans is an editorial for another day.
With thousands of votes to be cast Nov. 5, your Clarksdale Press Register is not so naïve as to believe every ballot will be marked correctly and everybody voted at the right place. We must trust and believe in our neighbors and friends, who manned local precincts, to run a clean ship.
All politics is local and good politics springs from elections run by good local people.
Many who will vote the First Tuesday in November will not see their candidate win and we hope they won’t just allege corruption and sour on the system that makes this country and this community great.
If you have legitimate concerns about how a ballot is ever handled, we encourage you to contact our Circuit Clerk (624-3014). If you have facts and information about larger problems, please contact the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Election Hotline (1-800-829-6786).
Tampering with the election process is a serious crime and one that rightly deserves the felony charges, stiff fines and jail terms demanded from those who violate it.
Only the holiness of a church service or the graveness of court in session out-weighs the sanctity of the voting booth.
We hope the people of Coahoma County always stand vigilant and ready to preserve the purity of local elections.
-30-
