Spurred by questions that had been raised after the Newton Municipal School District Board of Trustees elections last November, the Newton County Election Commission provided a step-by-step explanation about the candidate qualifying process to the Board of Supervisors during their first meeting of 2025.
The president of the election commission, Nancy Kidd Smith, alongside county Circuit Clerk Mike Butler, requested an opportunity to explain the process to supervisors after questions of candidate qualifications of NMSD Board of Trustees were aired at a City of Newton Mayoral and Board of Aldermen meeting in December. During the Dec. 3 meeting, officials said that such questions would be a matter to be brought forward and discussed at the school district’s board of trustees meeting and it was not a discussion for the city’s board of aldermen.
“Why we’re here today it to let you all know and inform you on what we, as election commissioner’s, do,” said Kidd-Smith. “Especially in the qualification of candidates because that has been questioned. And if questioned, it all should come back to the source and the source should be asked, and not someone else throw it out. Because we, as election commissioners, are servants of Newton County. All of us. And we are dedicated to do our job correctly and to follow the law of the Mississippi Code.”
Kidd Smith started by explaining that someone that is looking to be a candidate for an office must first be a qualified voter. She pointed out that when a person fills out a Mississippi Voter Registration Application, the applicant fills out their home address and mailing address, amongst all the other important information, and that application goes to the Circuit Clerk’s office, where they add it into the voter system.
She added that if a registered voter moves to a different location than where they’re registered, it’s up to the voter to update their voter registration, and their information would once again go to the Circuit Clerk’s office, and then be passed on to the election commission to update their records.
When it comes to qualifying for a position, she explained that a potential candidate would fill out a statement of intent where they fill out their residential address and they certify that they don’t have any disenfranchising crimes.
“This paperwork if filled out in the Circuit Clerk’s office. On the bottom of the paperwork, it says sworn and subscribed before me, the circuit clerk, and it’s stamped by them,” Smith-Kidd said.
Since the NMSD Trustee election was a non-partisan election, she said that qualifiers also had to turn in a petition of at least fifty signatures from the district they reside in, which is also inspected by the circuit clerk’s office.
Once the circuit clerk received all the pertinent information from qualifying candidate, Kidd-Smith said that the paperwork, such as the qualifying statement of intent and the petition with signatures, is also turned over to the election commissioners.
Next, Kidd-Smith focused on the candidate qualifying guide, which states that a candidate must have a high school diploma, or its equivalent, as well as be a resident of the district in which they seek election for two years preceding the day of election. And to determine if the candidate is qualifying for the correct district the election commission uses their election system, which can show them if the candidate has been voting in the same district for the past two years.
“That is one of the key things that we’re looking for,” she said.
Prior to the November election, Kidd-Smith said that they had a candidate for the NMSD Trustee election that filled out an address on the qualifying statement of intent that didn’t match with the address in their election system, however after double checking with other documentation, the address was in the same district that the candidate was qualifying for, and they had lived in the district for two years.
Circuit Clerk Mike Butler added that there was one other qualifying candidate that had moved to a new address in a different school district and had still been voting at his previous address for the last two year.
“With that candidate right there, we talked to him, Nancy and I did, and said ‘Hey, you say you’ve been voting here but you’re living over here. There’s going to be a lot of questions asked’, said Butler. “So, he withdrew his candidacy. He realized what he had done. And there were statements made, alluding that the election commissioner and myself did not qualify him. However, he withdrew on his own once he was given all the information and he said ‘Hey, you were right, and I understand’.” Kidd-Smith added that they did not even receive the candidates qualifying letter of intent because he had withdrawn.
Butler said that there were several people calling with questions, which he thought was great and didn’t mind it at all.
“We just felt like we needed to make it public also that they (election commissioners) did their job correctly and we did our job,” Butler said. “If you have any questions or anything, I know we just wanted that expressed to you guys what we do and just be on record with the job they do.”
When asked by Beat 4 Supervisor Charles Godwin if the election commission looks at each candidate the same way, Kidd-Smith confirmed they look at every one of them.
Beat 3 Supervisor Terry Vance asked what determines where a voter should vote if they move from one beat to another between elections.
Butler replied that the voter would need to be voting at what they consider their permanent residency.
“Even if he didn’t update his information, if he was in Beat 1 and moved to Beat 3, but is still registered in one, they need go to three and cast an affidavit ballot, because he doesn’t have a right to vote for this election over here (Beat 1). You vote where you’re living at that time,” said Butler.
In other news from the meeting:
-Approved Board President Charles Godfrey and Vice President Aaron Clark resigning their positions.
-Approved Aaron Clark as the 2025 Board President and Terry Frazer at Vice President.
-Approved rehiring all county employees at their current rates of pay.
-Heard from Katrina Evans, who approached the board about filing for Homestead Exemption credit for 2024 on her mother’s property, which she has lived at for 38 years. Evans said that she had failed to apply for homestead exemption in 2024 because she was grieving after her mother passed away in December of 2023. Clark asked to table the matter and talk to the Tax Assessor about the situation. He let Evans know that they would contact her once they did their homework on the matter.
-Andy Vance approached the board about help with a situation of his neighbor’s donkey coming onto his property and destroying his garden, attacking his dogs and being aggressive towards himself. Vance said he’s talked to the neighbor about it in the past, but nothing gets done. He also said that it’s a problem of the animal freely roaming around on the roads, especially at night when they’re hard to see. As for it being its aggressive behavior in his yard, he doesn’t want to shoot an animal, but if it’s being aggressive to himself, his animals, or visitors, it doesn’t leave him much of a choice.
Sheriff Joedy Pennington, present at the meeting, said that the county has a person that will pick up animals for them when needed. Pennington asked Vance to call the sheriff’s department the next time the donkey onto his property and they’ll have the donkey picked up and if his neighbor wants it back, he’ll have to pay a fee.
Vance then asked the board if they could look into possible state funding that would help the county pay someone to pick up animals in this situation and have a place to store them. He added he knows this is an ongoing issue all over the county and having someone available to deal with such matters would allow the sheriff department to be deal with more important matters.
