Hinds Co. Election Commission certifies 2022 results

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Shortly before the deadline Friday, the Hinds County Election Commission certified the results of the 2022 November elections.

“The election has been certified as of today, and we have sent a copy to the Secretary of State’s Office,” said Commission Chair Shirley Varnado. “Now, we’re working on everything for the runoff election, which is on November 29.”

Four of the five commissioners signed off on the results days after Congressional candidate Brian Flowers challenged the results, saying that one-fifth of the county’s precincts were not counted until the day after the election.

Flowers, a Republican, was seeking to unseat longtime Rep. Bennie Thompson, who won by more than 30,000 votes.

Varnado said any concerns with the race had been sorted out before the results were finalized.

Meanwhile, commissioners were busy preparing for the upcoming judicial runoffs, which will be the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

Runoffs are slated in the District 5-3 Chancery Court race between Tametrice Hodges and Gayla Carpenter-Sanders, and the District 7-2 Circuit Court race between Debra Gibbs and Wendy Wilson-White.

Hodges carried more than 36 percent of the vote in her race, compared to 33.3 percent for Carpenter-Sanders. Gibbs and Wilson-White received 44.3 percent and 27.06 percent of the ballots cast in the race to replace the longtime Circuit Judge Tomie Green.

In all, 53,068 people cast ballots on November 8, about 32 percent of the 166,721 registered voters in the county.

“I’m never pleased when we don’t have at least 80 to 90 percent,” Varnado said. “I want everybody to come out and vote because voting is important. And I know it, because I still have poll tax receipts from when my parents voted. So, it’s very important to me, and that’s one of the reasons why I ran for the Election Commission, because I wanted to make sure things were being done fair, honest and decent.”

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