Supervisors make voting precinct changes during emergency meeting

The Pearl River County Board of Supervisors held an emergency meeting on Wednesday afternoon (January 30th) to address the addition of one voting precinct and the relocation of an existing voting precinct.

The action to add a precinct came as a result of requests from voters who asked for a change to previous voting precinct changes that occurred last year in effort to reduce costs and comply with ADA requirements. The changes made last year were a joint effort between the Board of Supervisors, election commissioners, and Circuit Clerk Nance Fitzpatrick Stokes.

According to Stokes, the emergency meeting was needed to record the addition of the precinct in the board minutes on Wednesday because this change needed to be made 30 days prior to the deadline for qualifying for the 2019 primary election set for August 6th according to the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office.

Due to the change last year, voters in the north end of District 2 had to go to Poplarville 2 precinct at the Storm Shelter (Fairgrounds). With the motion passed on Wednesday, a precinct was created and named Spring Hill 2. The precinct will be placed at the North Central Voluntary Fire Department Station 1 for those voters in District 2 who are in the Poplarville North 2, the Byrd Line area, and part of Oak Hill.

Stokes stated that approximately 400 voters will be affected by this change and her office will notify those voters by sending them new voter id cards as soon as possible.

A second motion was passed to approve the relocation of the District 5 precinct at Sycamore Baptist Church to To-Be-Determined location. Board President and District 5 Supervisor Sandy Kane Smith stated that Sycamore Baptist Church has notified the board that they no longer want to be a voting precinct.

Smith said that he has spoken with Harvest Barn Church and is also looking for another possible location about becoming the new location of the precinct.

(see location of precinct below)