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NATCHEZ — A runoff election today will determine the candidate who will face Democrat Bennie Thompson in the general election for U.S. Representative in the state’s Second Congressional District.

Thompson has held that seat since 1993 and is currently serving his 15th term.

The Republican candidates to advance to a runoff are Andrew Scott Smith of Marion County and Ron Eller, a West Virginia native who resides in Raymond. Eller received about 47% of the state’s vote on March 12, and Smith received 36%.

Only those who did not vote as Democrat in the March 12 primary can vote in this election. Those who voted as Republican or not at all can cast a ballot. Election Commissioner Larry Gardner said election workers will have a record of who voted in the March 12 primary and what party’s ballot was voted.

Gardner said this is because in Mississippi, while voters do not register as either party, their party had been declared at the time they voted in the primary on March 12. Those who didn’t vote will be able to vote because they did not declare a party.

Though voter turnout thus far in Adams County seems as slow as Gardner predicted, poll workers are at each precinct ready to receive voters.

As of noon Tuesday, Crosspoint saw a dozen voters and Duncan Park saw eight, according to poll workers.

The March 12 primary was the first election Adams County has voted in the state’s Second Congressional District due to the legislature re-apportioning the state’s congressional districts in early 2022 after the 2020 U.S. Census.

The Second District now consists of almost all of the western portion of Mississippi, including Adams County.

Gardner said voters will go to the same voting places as in the last election on March 12. Polls will be open until 7 p.m.

The city’s municipal primary election was originally set to be held on April 2. However, the city’s board of aldermen voted last week to move it to Tuesday, April 9, as to not conflict with the state election on April 2.

City precincts are not the same as those for county elections, so the two elections cannot be held at the same time.