I, Lisa Lee Albritton, am announcing my candidacy for Pearl River County Circuit Court Clerk. If elected I will work tirelessly to improve the Circuit Clerk’s office by providing the citizens of Pearl River County with fair and honest elections, more effective management of our court system and more efficient use of our taxpayers dollars. I am currently the felony clerk for Justice Court and have been since 2002. I am also a former business owner.

I believe that fair and honest elections are the foundation of our democracy and that voter fraud is the greatest threat to honest elections. Since Mississippi does not require everyone to show identification in order to vote, we cannot allow people who have been deceased for three and four years to remain on our voter rolls. Accurate, up-to-date voter rolls are one of the best ways to prevent voter fraud.

I will work closely with Secretary of State and Election Commissioners to purge deceased persons, felons and other ineligible persons from our voter rolls. I will work to see that our voting precincts are properly equipped and staffed with well-trained personnel who position and maintain voting machines to protect the privacy of your vote, as well as prevent people from improperly trying to influence your vote at our voting precincts.

There are several hundred felony cases pending in our Circuit Court. Some of these have been pending for years. That’s hundreds of felons walking our streets or sitting in our jail costing our county money. I will work closely with the judges and district attorney’s office to help speed-up trials, so that we can get these criminals off of our streets and into our state correctional system. I will assure that all court paperwork is processed in a timely manner and make criminal case information more accessible to the public by placing it online and in the newspapers. I believe that letting victims and others know the current status and schedule of criminal cases will better serve our citizens.

There are hundreds of thousands of dollars of uncollected fines owed to our criminal courts in Pearl River County. The law provides numerous ways to effectively collect this money but many aren’t being used. I will work with the board attorney and Judges in order to pursue garnishments and collections against delinquent defendants. I will use my experience, and any means authorized by law, to collect unpaid fines and restitution for crime victims. I believe that every dollar collected from these individuals is a dollar that will not have to come from the taxpayers’ pockets.

I love our county and am very proud to say that I am a life-long resident of Pearl River County. I am the daughter of Jimmy Lee and Sandra Childs Lee of the Whitesand Community in Poplarville and the granddaughter of B.W. Childs and Merrell Aldridge Childs and Chester Lee and Eunice Ward Lee, all of the Whitesand community in Poplarville. I am married to Sen. Sid Albritton, the son of Larry Albritton and Kathy Barrett Albritton of Picayune. We have three wonderful children: Sid, Autumn and Baylee.

The general election on Nov. 6 is just around the corner. Since I have not had the opportunity to meet every one of you, I am sincerely asking for your vote and support and hope to see you soon.