Starkville voters will take to the polls Tuesday and decide four competitive ward races.
Up for grabs are Wards 1, 2, 4 and 7, while primary elections have already decided David Little, Patrick Miller and Roy A. Perkins will represent Wards 3, 5 and 6, respectively.
Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
Approximately 111 absentee ballots were cast ahead of Tuesday’s election, City Clerk Lesa Hardin said. It is unknown how those 111 ballots are split between the four wards.
In Ward 1, Republican Alderman Ben Carver is seeking a third term in a race against Democrat Christine Williams.
Carver works for Insurance Associates, and Williams is a graduate teaching and research assistant at the MSU Department of Political Science and Public Administration.
Ward 2’s three-way race is between incumbent Lisa Wynn, insurance salesman Jesse Carver and former Alderman Sandra Sistrunk.
Wynn, who is making an independent bid for her second term, shed her party identification at the end of this year’s qualification window; Sistrunk previously served as Ward 2’s alderman before Wynn; and Jesse Carver, the brother of Ben Carver, works as an agent with the New York Life Insurance Company.
Ward 4 Alderman Jason Walker, a Democrat, is also seeking a second term and faces Republican Pete Ledlow.
Ledlow owns Pete’s Transmission, while Walker is an associate professor in the MSU Department of Landscape Architecture.
Political newcomer and senior Mississippi State University Flight Department pilot Roben Dawkins is attempting to become one of Ward 7’s first – if not the first – Republican alderman. He faces incumbent Democrat Henry Vaughn, who is seeking his third term.
Ballots in all seven wards will feature candidates’ names on them, including those unchallenged aldermen who have already secured their terms and Mayor-elect Lynn Spruill, since Hardin said the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office states municipalities with contested races must still list all candidates.
VOTER GUIDE: Read a Q&A with most candidates online at http://bit.ly/2rDlet1
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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