After the final tally of absentee and affidavit ballots was completed, Michelle Vogt was elected to a second term as District 5 Election Commissioner in Pearl River County.
According to final election results from the Pearl River County Circuit Clerk’s office, Vogt received 2,282 votes, just over 51 percent of the votes, while her opponent Johnny Stafford received 48 percent, or 2,171 votes.
Vogt said she was elected to the position last year during a special election. This time around, she will serve the full four-year term.
“It was something that I was just really interested in, I had worked in the polls for about 10 years,” Vogt said.
Before affidavit and absentee ballots were counted, Vogt trailed behind Stafford, who at that time held 50 percent of the vote.
Unofficial election results originally reported that Stafford received 1,930 votes and Vogt received 1,887 votes.
She said campaigning for this election has helped her communicate better with the county and hear their concerns.
“It’s always a learning process,” Vogt said. “I think we do very well in the process by changing small things here and there…we’re working to keep things honest.”
Absentee and affidavit ballots also changed the margins of other contested races in Pearl River County.
Final election results from the Circuit Clerk’s office for the U.S. Fourth Congressional District race state Rep. Steven Palazzo received a total of 16,613 votes, or 77 percent of the vote, in Pearl River County while Mark Gladney received 3,426, or 16 percent.
For District 2 of the Mississippi Supreme Court, presiding Judge Dawn H. Beam received 11,906 votes total, or 67 percent of the vote, and Michael Shareef received 5,723 votes, or 32 percent of the vote.
In these instances, the addional affidavit and absentee votes provided an average of 1,000 votes for each race.
Voter participation in Pearl River County also rose from 56.28 percent to 57.77 percent with the additional votes.