NATCHEZ &045;&045; Municipal judge candidate Lisa Jordan Dale said Friday she won’t contest the results of Tuesday’s primary election.

That’s despite the fact that, after results were certified, candidate Jim Blough was found to only have 32 more votes that Dale &045;&045; 1,240 to 1,208. With those results, Blough will face Patricia Dunmore in the May 18 runoff. Dunmore, as of Friday’s final numbers, received 2,303 votes.

&uot;I’ve decided not to do anything that would put the city through that kind of confusion, expense and havoc,&uot; Dale said.

Dale made her comments Friday afternoon after two-and-a-half days of watching commissioners certify ballots cast in the primary. Dale would say she was surprised commissioners decided to certify the election results. On Thursday night, Dale said, commissioners &uot;told both me and Mr. Blough that due to multiple problems with the election they wouldn’t certify it.&uot;

Those problems, she said, ranged from affidavit ballots that were cast without signatures to clerks not forwarding some voter registration forms to the Election Commission. That latter problem &045;&045; along with voters not letting the City Clerk’s Office or Circuit Clerk’s Office know when they changed addresses &045;&045; resulted in many of the primary’s affidavit ballots.

Earlier in the day, Gardner had acknowledged such problems. In addition, he noted that commissioners encountered some differences between the number of people that signed poll books and the number that actually cast ballots. &uot;You’ll have someone who will miss signing the book, and then we actually had someone who signed twice,&uot; Gardner said. &uot;In reality, it should not happen, … but you get a roomful of people and everybody is in a hurry, sometimes it does.&uot;

Gardner said the number of individuals watching the process and asking questions slowed the certification process, although he added that &uot;the candidates handled themselves extremely professionally.&uot; Then there’s the meticulous nature of the process itself, with commissioners looking over the ballots in detail &uot;to make sure we don’t disenfranchise anybody.&uot;