Flaggs, Monsour and Mayfield are all re-elected

All three incumbents returned to office with North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield and Mayor George Flaggs receiving overwhelming support from the voters.

The South Ward race was a lot closer with challenger Vicki Bailey putting together a strong campaign that brought the election down to the wire. The first precinct to report in, the N0. 5 Fire Station, had Bailey with 315 votes and incumbent Monsour with 171. Those numbers had to thrill the Bailey camp and send chills down the spine of the Monsour group. The Travelers Rest Baptist Church precinct then came in with Bailey getting 19 more votes than Monsour and it wasn’t until Porter’s Chapel, a Monsour stronghold came through, that Monsour could exhale.

Vickie Bailey (photo courtesy Vickie Bailey)

After all the precincts reported Monsour was ahead by only 120 votes and faced 226 absentee, affidavit and curbside ballots. It was enough votes to change the outcome if Bailey had enough supporters who voted absentee.

The South Ward alderman race came down to these absentee ballots. (Photo by David Day)

An almost three-hour, tenuous vote count ensued with the election commission rigorously processing each vote by hand and then through the machine. At 10:23 p.m. the commission announced to the Vicksburg Daily News they had the totals. When it was all counted, Monsour gained another 36 votes over Bailey from the absentees and was the clear winner. 2190 total votes were counted in the South Ward.

In the city of Vicksburg, there are 14,213 registered voters. Including the absentee et al ballots, 4081 people voted in the Mayor’s race with George Flaggs winning 2786 of those votes or a convincing 68%. It appears a total of 5569 people voted assuming those who voted in the South Ward also voted in the Mayor’s contest. 5569 people represent 39% of the registered voters who voted.

A total of 7389 ballots were counted according to the Election Commission number posted on the Warren County website.

According to the Secretary of State’s website, Warren County has 35,085 in the voting age population with 27,205 of them registered to vote or 77.54% of eligible voters who are registered to vote.

All the vote totals are unofficial until the totals are certified by the appropriate commissions. Absentee ballots by mail have until 5 days after the election to arrive.

Full election results are below: