Voters were at the door of the Civic Auditorium at 7 a.m. Tuesday and a woman came in at 7 p.m. to cast the last ballot in the Clarksdale Ward 2 Commissioner race that saw a heavy turnout of 660 ballots cast on Election Day
Clarksdale will see a runoff between Alfred Allen and Jimmy Harris, as no candidate came close to the 50-percent margin necessary to claim the race.
Unofficial vote totals are:
• Alfred Allen – 157.
• Shannon Dixon – 85.
• Jimmy Harris – 178.
• George Hines – 19.
• Alfred Kemp - 29.
• Meg Murphey - 147.
• Janise Ray - 35.
The runoff election between Allen and Harris will be held Oct. 24. The winner of that race will take his seat on the Clarksdale Board of Mayor and Commissioners immediately.
The next full city election will be held in the Spring of 2025.
The City Election Commission, made up of Sanford Johnson, Anne Clark and Rivers Humber said the election went smoothly.
“We had a large turnout and that was good, in spite of it being a special election and candidates only have a month or so to prepare,” said Election Commission Chairman Johnson. “We have veteran poll-workers and that makes a difference.”
Johnson said absentee ballots are in tonight’s total and will be vetted by the resolution committee tomorrow. He said there were about “a dozen” affidavit ballots that are not in tonight’s total and they will also be vetted by the resolution committee Wednesday.
The death of Ward 2’s Commissioner in August prompted the special election to fill the Ward 2 spot.
Voting was only open to registered voters in Ward 2. All ballots were cast at the traditional Ward 2 precinct at the Civic Auditorium downtown and counted there Tuesday night.
Vote totals were released about 7:30 p.m.
As always polls were open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day.
The seven people on the ballot seeking to fill the vacant Clarksdale Ward 2 Commissioner’s post diluted vote of Ward 2.
Two other people had initially turned in paperwork seeking the post, but vetting by the City Election Commission determined Allascia Byrd did not get the required 50 signatures from Ward 2 voters and a search of the State Election Management System determined Calvin Glover’s address was not in Ward 2.
Candidates must get 50-percent plus one vote in Tuesday’s election to claim the Ward 2 seat. Registered Ward 2 voters can cast an absentee ballot at City Hall during regular working hours and from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday. Absentee voters must be willing to present some form of approved identification to cast an absentee ballot.
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 reelected 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.
