WOODVILLE — Just when voters started to believe the final word had been said in the Wilkinson County Democratic primary elections from August 2007, there was a hiccup.

Candidates Kirk Smith and Jesse Stewart filed motions to examine the ballot boxes from the June 24 special primary, and the examination was set to begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday but was delayed because of procedural questions.

Stewart trailed incumbent Sheriff Reginald “Pip” Jackson by 65 votes, and Smith, the former district two supervisor, followed current Supervisor Richard Hollins by 29 votes.

Jackson and Hollins also wanted to examine the boxes Wednesday, but had not previously filed to do so.

Those involved contacted Judge Jim Persons, who oversaw the election contest that led to the calling of the new election, for an answer.

Persons was on the bench for an unrelated trial during the morning, and did not rule on the matter until 2:30 p.m.

Persons ruled that Jackson and Hollins did not have any right to examine the boxes but could observe, Stewart’s attorney Dennis Horn said.

Because some of those involved had time conflicts at 5 p.m., the examination will continue this morning, Horn said.

The contents of the boxes include absentee, affidavit and curbside ballots, as well as the poll sign-in sheets and poll books.

The special election was called by Persons after a months-long election contest in which he ultimately determined the paper ballots from the August 2007 Wilkinson County Democratic primary could not be trusted because it could not be determined who had custody of or access to the ballots between the time of the election and when the contest started in November 2007.

The contest was filed by Hollins, Jackson and Circuit Clerk Mon Cree Allen after a then one vote majority of the Wilkinson County Democratic Executive Committee voted to throw out the paper ballots in September 2007, which effectively changed the declared results of the election to a win for Smith, Stewart and circuit clerk candidate Lynn Tolliver Delaney.

A general election is scheduled for July 22, in which Delaney will face independent candidate Donna Smith and — barring any change in results due to an election contest — Jackson will face challenger Calvin Gaines.