Lower voter turnout expected for Mississippi primary elections

Mississippi’s top election officials say a ‘disappointing’ number of absentee ballots have been requested for the June 5^th party primaries for U.S. House and Senate.

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann says that in a state with 1.8 million registered voters, only about 6,000 people have requested absentee ballots.  His office did not have information about how many absentee ballots were requested a week before the last federal midterm election in 2014.

Republicans and Democrats each have a party primary for a U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Roger Wicker. Each party has a primary for Central Mississippi’s 3^rd District House seat where Republican incumbent Gregg Harper is not seeking re-election.

Republicans also have a primary in South Mississippi’s 4^th District with Republican incumbent Steven Palazzo facing E. Brian Rose.