Video: Elections Results in Starkville Are Now Certified

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Election results in Starkville are now certified.

It became official this morning at city hall.

The paperwork has been handed off to the Secretary of State’s office, and the next step is run-offs.

The Republican primary for the Ward 1 Alderman seat is tied.

Now, voters will have a second chance to pick a party winner.

Before the GOP Ward 1 Aldermen race was ruled as a tie with 104 votes, initial results were contested and then reviewed two times by the Republican Municipal Committee.

“We were trying to discern and decide whether we were going to accept an affidavit ballot, or not,” says Chairman of the Municipal Committee for the Republican Committee for the city of Starkville, Jack Forbus.

Since that ballot was accepted, Ward 1 Alderman incumbent Ben Carver and candidate Jason Camp are heading to a runoff.

“We certified the number of ballots cast in each ward, for each party, for each candidate, and we certified that and we signed off on it with the Democratic Party for the municipal election, the Republican municipal election, and then the Starkville Election Commission. The three of us together, with the city clerk.”

The committee had no choices after both candidates received the same amount of votes.

“The law is pretty clear in an alderman’s race in a primary, you have a runoff.”

“Runoffs prove just how important it is to exercise your right to vote. Even just one vote, like this absentee ballot, could have made a difference in this race.”

“The process now, is how do you target the 75% of individuals that did not vote? If there were never a time that your vote counts, this is it,” says Ward 1 Alderman incumbent Ben Carver.

“Until we get people interested in elections and making sure they’re aware of how important every vote is, to making sure they have good roads, good bridges, and streets in their towns, we’ll have stuff like this unfortunately, happen again,” says candidate Jason Camp.

If you voted Democratic in the primaries, then you cannot vote in the GOP Ward 1 Alderman runoff race.

If you didn’t vote at all during primaries, you can vote in the runoff next Tuesday.