NATCHEZ — If Adams County voters want to cast absentee ballots for the upcoming runoff, they had better do it soon.

The deadline for voting absentee in the circuit clerk’s office at the courthouse is noon today.

“(Voters who want to vote absentee) need to try to make their way over here soon,” Circuit Clerk M.L. “Binkey” Vines said Friday.

Mailed-in absentee ballots will be accepted until 5 p.m. Monday for Tuesday’s Democratic runoff.

Already, roughly 300 voters have cast absentee ballots, Vines said

“I think it’s picked up,” he said. “It’s very brisk.”

Vines, who is in a runoff for re-election, said he thought voters would show up to the polls Tuesday.

“I think people will go out to vote,” he said.

Even if voters didn’t cast a ballot in the Aug. 7 primaries, they can still vote Tuesday, Election Commission Chairman Larry Gardner said.

“By legal definition, the runoff is an extension of the first election,” Gardner said. “So, in essence, we’re still working on that same election.”

However, voters must cast ballots in the same party’s election they cast last time.

“If you voted as a Republican in the first primary, you cannot vote as a Democrat in the second,” Gardner said.

Since only Democratic candidates are in Tuesday’s runoff, those who voted Republican in the primaries won’t be allowed to vote.

Candidates in races for state auditor, circuit clerk, tax collector, District 1 and 3 supervisors and southern district justice court judge will participate in the runoff.

Vines said his office received ballots for the runoff Tuesday. Before that, absentee voters filled out extra ballots from the Aug. 7 primary.

The ballots were delayed because the election commission had to wait for the state to certify which state candidates would be in the runoff, Gardner said.

Tuesday’s runoff should run smoother than the first primaries, Gardner said.

For example, most of those who voted by affidavit ballot — used if a voter is not on the voting rolls — have been added to a supplemental poll book. That way, they will be able to vote by machine on Election Day.

“We added about 160 names to the poll books,” Gardner said. “That’s a pretty good number.”

With fewer affidavit ballots and probably fewer absentee ballots, results should arrive sooner, he said.

Fewer races and candidates will help speed things up, too, he said.

The election commission and Democratic Executive Committee were busy Friday preparing for the runoffs.

“The machines have been programmed and tested,” Gardner said. “We had to program every memory card for every voting machine. We worked until almost 9 p.m. Wednesday.”

One aspect that might take more time is absentee and affidavit ballots, he said.

“We won’t use the optical scanning ballots,” Gardner said. “All the paper ballots will have to be counted by hand. The printer couldn’t guarantee we’d have the (special) ballots in time. We did not have the file from the secretary of state’s office. When one thing holds it up, it creates a landslide affect and holds up other counties, too.”

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday for the Democratic primary runoff.