WOODVILLE — More than two years after initial allegations of voter fraud were leveled during the Wilkinson County Democratic primary, the prosecution of the only person charged in the incident will begin Monday.

Connie Hollins, of Woodville, was indicted on three counts of voter fraud after the year-long election contest that followed the August 2007 Democratic primary.

She is alleged to have hand-delivered three absentee ballots to Jackson and assisted the recipients in voting.

The charges were based on testimony given during the course of the election contest, and were first presented to the Sixth District District Attorney’s Office by the Public Integrity Division of the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, District Attorney Ronnie Harper said.

Even though allegations against other people on both sides of the election were raised, Hollins was the only one charged.

“That was the only case presented to my office that (the Attorney General’s office) believed had sufficient evidence to proceed with charges,” Harper said.

“A grand jury of 20 good citizens from Wilkinson County elected to return an indictment, and we are going to return the prosecution.”

The trial should last from one to three days, depending on how long jury selection takes, Harper said.

Judge Forrest “Al” Johnson ordered that a pool of 500 potential jurors be called for the case.

“There was a lot of publicity about the case down there, and a lot of people know about it, so with something like that you never know how (potential jurors) are going to respond to the questioning process,” Harper said.

Though Judge Lillie Blackmon Sanders would normally hear the case, Johnson was assigned the matter after Sanders recused herself citing a conflict of interest.

Sanders’ husband, attorney Everett Sanders, represented one of the candidates involved in the initial election contest.

The contest eventually resulted in a new election when Judge Jim Persons ruled that a chain of custody guaranteeing absentee, affidavit and curbside ballots had not been tampered with could not be determined.