Some Meridian residents will have a chance to go back to the polls on April 22 to vote in two separate runoff elections, and elections officials are working to educate voters about where they need to go.

 

Voters of state House District 82 will vote between Meridian Civil Service Commissioner Greg Elliott and Lauderdale County Supervisor Joe Norwood Sr. to succeed former Rep. Charles Young Jr. who died in December.

 

At the same time, voters in Meridian’s Ward 3 will cast their ballots between Tracy Tims and Joe Norwood Jr. to be the Democratic nominee for the Ward 3 seat on the Meridian City Council. The nominee will move on to face Republican Beverly Henson in the June 3 general election.

 

In a statement, Lauderdale County Circuit Clerk Donna Jill Johnson said just 13 of the county’s 37 voting precincts will be open for the House District 82 runoff as only voters living in District 82 are eligible to cast a vote.

 

“Only 13 out of our 37 are eligible to vote in that district, and of those 13, four of those are called ‘split precincts,’” she said. “This means if you are in one of these four, to look at your voter registration cared to see if you are in another House of Representative district.

 

Trinity Presbyterian, Velma Young, Church of the Mediator and Meehan are all District 82 precincts but are also precincts for District 83, District 45, District 83 and District 81 respectively. Residents can tell what district they live in by looking at the number under REP on their voter registration card.

 

In the Ward 3 runoff, only residents of the ward will be eligible to vote, and just two voting precincts will be open for residents to cast their votes. El Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, located at 2300 State Boulevard, and MSU-Meridian, at 1000 Highway 19 North, are both city and county voting precincts and will host both the Ward 3 and House District 82 races.

 

“If you did not vote on April 1, you may still vote in the runoff,” Johnson said.

 

The Circuit Clerk’s office in the Lauderdale County Government Center will be open 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 12 and again on April 19 for residents to vote via absentee in the House District 82 runoff. County offices, however, will be closed Friday, April 18, for Good Friday.

 

Meridian City Hall will also be open 8 a.m. to noon on April 12 and April 19 for absentee voting in the Ward 3 runoff. The city will not close for Good Friday and will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 18.

 

For more information about absentee voting or to look up voting precincts, visit The Mississippi Secretary of State’s elections portal at sos.ms.gov/yall-vote.