By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Due to an error by the St. Francis County Election Commission, voters in Hughes were almost faced with deciding between the wrong candidates in one of the city's two runoff races for seats on the city council.
According to Joe Young, election commission chairman, an error caused the name of Joyce Long, who was a candidate earlier this month in the race for the alderman, ward 3, position 1 seat, to be placed on the runoff ballot instead of the name of Irene Combs, who should have been on the ballot.
Young said a major problem was averted when commission members marked through Long's name and replaced it with Combs on each ballot. According to Young, attorney Tim Humphries with the Arkansas Secretary of State's office approved of the move.
"We talked with Tim Humphries with Sharon Priest's office (Secretary of State) and he told us that it was all right to mark through the name and replace it with the right candidate so that's what we did. We really would have had a major problem if this had happened in a bigger race in a bigger city, but since this was such a small race, we were able to get everything together," Young said.
According to Humphries, the idea to mark the ballots was actually Young's. "I talked with Mr. Young, and he told me what had happened, and the only other option that they had was to not have the election. When he asked me about it, I told him it would be okay, and it's a much more feasible option than holding the election later," Humphries said.
According to Young, the problem was not caught earlier due to a low turnout for early voting in that race. "We only had three ballots cast in early voting, and one of them was mine, so we might have two that there were problems on, but since we didn't find out about this until the last minute, I don't think that it's going to be a major problem," Young said.
Voters in Forrest City are going to the polls today to choose a new mayor, and as of 11 a.m., around 2,117 people had voted, including early and absentee voting.
The final count of early voters was 1,193, with absentee votes at 549.
In Ward 1, voting at Christ Church, 80 people had voted as of 11 a.m.
At the Forrest City Civic Center, where workers were complaining because the heat was out, the vote was as follows: Ward 2, 78 votes; Ward 3, 135 votes; Ward 4, 82 votes.
Depending on which poll worker one talked to, the voting was going anywhere from slow to well.
The polls will stay open until 7:30 tonight.
Eugene Pryor and Anita Ford, both of Forrest City, missed just four of last week's selected games in the Professor Pigskin Football Contest to create a tie for the cash prize, but it was Pryor who came within six points of correctly guessing the score in the Arkansas-Mississippi State tie-breaker game to win the $50.
Ford was close as well, coming within nine points of the final score.
There are two weeks remaining in the Pigskin Contest for 2002.
This week's selection of games can be found inside today's Times-Herald.
The Christmas Bell Committee, along with the help of the First National Bank of Eastern Arkansas branch in Palestine, is again sponsoring a "Community Bell Tree" this year.
Each bell will contain information about a child. Persons may stop by the Palestine branch to select a bell.
Bells should be picked up by Dec. 4. Then participants should wrap the gifts they purchase, put the bells back on the packages, and return the presents to the bank by Dec. 16.
Families that are receiving the gifts will need to pick them up at the bank on Dec. 18, before 3 p.m.
For more information, call 581-2500.