I stopped by the Adams County Circuit Clerk’s office in the courthouse building on Monday afternoon.

The halls were lined with voting machines and voting stations and people were coming and going.

The circuit clerk’s office was busier than I’ve seen it the year and half that I have lived in Natchez and no wonder.

Election day is exactly one week away.

Fifteen countywide offices are up for grabs and as the big day approaches and the final week is upon us, the circuit clerk’s office is gearing up for it and people are coming in and out of the office for all kinds of election-related paperwork.

The candidates also are busy going door to door, pumping the flesh, getting their faces in front of the public and doing their best to shore up votes.

Six of the county-wide races on the ballots will be decided in the primaries since all of the candidates in those races are running as Democrats: District 1 Adams County Supervisor, Adams County Northern District Constable, Adams County Southern District Constable, Northern District Justice Court Judge, Adams County Coroner and Adams County Prosecuting Attorney.

Also on the ballots Aug. 6 will be candidates vying for district offices, including the Sixth District Attorney’s office, which features incumbent Ronnie Harper and challenger Shameca Collins, both Democrats, and no Republican or independent challengers.

Therefore, that race will be decided in the primaries Aug. 6 or if necessary the Aug. 27 runoff.

The Natchez Democrat has been publishing periodically all the candidates running for the county-wide offices but until today, has not published a comprehensive list of all the district-wide and statewide candidates who will be on the party primary ballots.

After we published the list of county-wide candidates in Friday’s edition, I had several readers contact me wanting us to list district-wide and statewide candidates who will be on the Aug. 6 ballots.

Actually, those readers wanted us to publish sample ballots.

To do that in this year’s races, however, is beyond the scope of what The Natchez Democrat can do with some 50 candidates on the ballots, 20 races and two parties, not to mention many precincts are in different state representative and senate districts, some in Northern and Southern districts for constables, judges, etc.

To publish all the ballots to cover every party, race and precinct would take more newsprint than we can afford, not to mention it would be confusing to readers who may not know which precinct they are in.

Thus, the reason for my visit to the circuit clerk’s office was to get copies of the sample ballots, which came back the size of a Greg Iles’ novel (not quite; just kidding).

I got the sample ballots to compile a list of district wide and statewide candidates who will be on the ballots.

Today that list appears in a story we have profiling Collins and Harper in the race for the district attorney’s office. We plan to profile other district wide and statewide candidates through the week and hope to run the full list with it as space allows.

If the list is too confusing for you, however, you can do as we did and go by the Circuit Clerk’s office and ask for a copy of a sample ballot for your own precinct.

That way you can be prepared when you go to the polls a week from today.

Best of luck to the voters and candidates.

Scott Hawkins is editor of The Natchez Democrat. Reach him at 601-445-3540 or scott.hawkins@natchezdemocrat.com