In November 2017 Danny Barber lost by one vote — 867 to 866 — to Eileen Mary Maher in an Adams County Justice Court special election.

Barber filed a formal challenge to the results in December, specifically questioning one absentee vote that Barber said he believes did not have proper signatures of the voter and witness across the fold of the envelope as stipulated by law.

Now more than six months after filing his complaint, a cloud still hangs over the election results.

Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice William L. Waller Jr. has assigned the case to a circuit judge in Harrison County, but a court date has not yet been set to settle the matter.

Meanwhile, Danny Barber deserves an answer to the questions he has raised about the election process and the slim margin by which he was defeated.

Likewise, Maher deserves to have any question of the legitimacy of her victory cleared up.

And, of course, the constituents who voted for the candidates of their choice also deserve to have the issue cleared up.

It is ironic to say the normally slow wheels of justice are moving too slowly on a case that involves the justice system in the election of a justice court judge seat.

We would hope the system could work better than that, and the community certainly deserves a system that works better than that.