Attala County residents will head to the polls Tuesday, Nov. 8 to vote in the general election.
A special election for Attala County circuit clerk will be on the ballot. Lula Thompson and Tim Pinkard are running for the office.
Thompson, who currently holds the position, was appointed to serve as circuit clerk September 2021 after the death of Wanda Fancher. Thompson had served as deputy circuit clerk for more than 20 years.
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Pinkard is a longtime member of the Attala County Board of Supervisors, serving District 5.
Whoever is elected will serve the rest of Fancher’s term until the regular election for the position is held in November 2023.
Running in the judicial election for Circuit Court District 5 Place 2 are Doug Crosby, Doug Evans, Alan D. “Devo” Lancaster, Zachary A. Madison and Kasey Burney Young. This is a special election to fill the seat vacated by the late Judge George Mitchell, who died earlier this year.
• Crosby is a Kosciusko attorney and owner of Crosby Law Office. He has been a practicing attorney for 26 years and has 22 years of experience as a prosecutor. He’s served as Attala County prosecutor, Attala County Youth Court prosecutor and Kosciusko city prosecutor. He is Kosciusko School District’s 16th section land manager and member of its Drop-Out Prevention Committee.
• Evans began his career as a deputy sheriff and then as a police officer in Grenada. After graduating from law school, he began serving as an assistant district attorney. After that, he opened a private law practice in Grenada. He was elected to the position of justice court judge in Grenada County, where he served until being elected district attorney for the Fifth District Circuit Court.
• Lancaster of Grenada has been a licensed attorney in the state of Mississippi for 44 years. He serves as a municipal judge in Winona (2010-present) and previously in Grenada (2000-2008). He is a partner in the Lancaster Taylor Law Firm in Winona. He has served as attorney for the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors and Montgomery County Economic Development for more than 30 years.
• Madison of Winston County has been a licensed attorney since 2005. Madison began his career working as an attorney for the Department of Human Services in Attala and Winston counties. Madison later moved to private practice. He has served as a public defender, practicing in Winston County Justice Court and Fifth District Circuit Court. In 2019, he was appointed to complete the term of Winston County prosecuting attorney and was later elected to keep the position. He also serves as attorney for the town of Noxapater.
• Young is an attorney from Choctaw County specializing in public defense, appeal matters and family law. She is the attorney for the Choctaw County Board of Supervisors, Choctaw County Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees, the town of Weir and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. She is also a special master for youth court in Choctaw County.
Two seats on the Attala County School Board will be on the ballot. Running for the District 2 seat are Frankie Boyd Blackmon and Cody Whittington. Jeffery Perteet is now running unopposed for the District 1 seat after the late September death of the incumbent, Wilson Jackson. The Attala County School Board decided at a recent meeting to not appoint anyone to serve in Jackson’s seat for the rest of his term until the new board member, Perteet, is officially sworn in next year.
For the Kosciusko School Board, one seat will be on the ballot. Running unopposed is Allison McBride Schuler, who is currently a member of the board.
Also on the ballot running unopposed in judicial elections are John H. Emfinger, Court of Appeals District 3 Position 2; Joseph Kilgore, Chancery Court District 6 Place 1; Kiley Kirk, Chancery Court District 6 Place 2; and Joseph H. “Joey” Loper Jr., Circuit Court District 5 Place 1.
The ballot will include the seat of U.S. House of Representatives 2nd Congressional District, long held by Bennie G. Thompson, a Democrat from Bolton.
Challenging the incumbent is Republican Brian Flowers, who resides in Clinton.
Thompson has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1993. He is the longest-serving African American elected official in the state of Mississippi and the lone Democrat in the Mississippi Congressional Delegation. Thompson serves as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. He has also served on the Agriculture, Budget and Small Business Committees. In 2021, he was selected by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to chair the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.
Flowers is a Fayetteville, North Carolina, native. According to his website, after high school, he felt led to join the armed forces. He is a Navy veteran who served for over 10 years. He moved his family to Mississippi in 2014 after taking a mechanical planning position at Grand Gulf Nuclear Station.
Polls will be open on Election Day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Voters in line by 7 p.m. will still be allowed to cast their ballots.
The last day to vote in-person absentee is Saturday, Nov. 5. Circuit clerk offices will be open from 8 a.m. to noon. All mail-in absentee ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday, Nov. 8 and received by county circuit clerk offices within five business days.
The Attala County Resolution Board will meet at the courthouse on Nov. 8 to process the absentee ballots.
According to the Secretary of State’s website, Attala County has had 298 absentee ballots requested and sent, and 234 of those have been received.
Election results will not be available in time for The Star-Herald’s print deadline for next week’s edition, but results will be available online at www.starherald.net.
For questions regarding Election Day, email the Secretary of State’s Elections Division at ElectionsAnswers@sos.ms.gov, call the Elections Hotline at 1-800-829-6786 or visit YallVote.ms.
