The results are in. Here’s what happened in Tuesday’s elections
Hancock County has a new coroner and a runoff will be held for an open seat on the Jackson County Board of Supervisors after Tuesday’s elections in South Mississippi.
Both Jackson and Hancock counties had elections, while Harrison County did not.
In Jackson County, there will be a Nov. 23 runoff between Moss Point Alderman Ennit Morris and former state representative Mitch Ellerby to fill the remainder of the term for District 2 Jackson County supervisor.
In the supervisor’s race, Morris lead with 655 votes, or 28 percent, and Ellerby garnered 575 votes for 24.4 percent. John Mosley Jr. got 562 votes, or 23.9 percent, while Sherwood Bradford got 520 votes, or 22 percent. Richard McBride got 30 votes.
“District 2 is where I was raised,” Morris said. “I’m excited to be in the runoff.”
Ellerby said the key to his success was listening to voters. “I worked hard and collaborated with people to see what their needs are from the north end of the district to the south end,” he said.
The Justice Court District 2 race also will have a runoff between retired state trooper Terrence Packer and community leader Karen Payne Fountain. Packer lead with 1,097 votes, or 47 percent, to Fountain’s 954 votes, or 41 percent. Attorney Adrianne Crawford-Rhoads got 288 votes, or 12 percent.
Runoffs occur when no one candidate gets 50 percent plus one vote.
The supervisor District 2 race was to fill the unexpired term of Melton Harris, who died in office July 13. His wife, Portia Harris was appointed in August to serve until the special election.
Harris, who was known for his calming demeanor and ability to include constituents in the process of government, was serving his fourth term as supervisor.
In school board races:
▪ Lauranne Tomaszewski beat out two opponents to take the Ocean Springs School Board District 1 position, which is territory outside the city limits. Tomaszewski garnered 330 votes to Wendy Humphreys Green’s 85 votes and Karen Y. Mullen’s 243 votes.
▪ Amy Arender Peterson took the Jackson County School Board District 5 race with 538 votes over Chad Evans’ 361.
In Hancock County, the only contest on the ballot was to fill the remaining two years of the term of former coroner Jim Faulk, who resigned for health reasons.
Circuit Clerk Kendra Necaise said there is no need for a runoff after Jeff Hair took more than 50% of the vote. Unofficial results Tuesday night showed Hair had 1,476 votes to Melissa Taillon’s 424 votes and Tina Stanfill’s 279 votes.
Hair, of Bay St. Louis, served as deputy coroner under Norma Stiglet and has been in law enforcement for 32 years, some of those years as a detective and in narcotics, according to his election website.
He narrowly lost to Faulk in the 2019 election.
Staff reporter Mary Perez contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 9:49 PM.